Simon fails to make most of super starts

1:50pm Monday 12th May 2008

A WARM weekend at Brands Hatch did little to help Simon Andrews and the Jentin Racing Lloyds British Bennetts British Superbike Team.

A hot track and the warm spring conditions completely changed the bike settings from last month's originally scheduled event that fell foul of the snow.

Practice sessions were reduced to just two 30-minute sessions and pressure mounted with Andrews only getting in six laps before losing the front end at Sheene Curve in the first session.

The team worked hard in the second session trying to find those extra few tenths of a second, which never materialised.

Having qualified in seventh position in April, the Vale racer was upgraded to sixth in the absence of Karl Harris.

Andrews secured a brilliant start in race one and he shot straight into fourth place. Michael Laverty went down at Druids moving Andrews up a further place into third which he held for several laps.

Unfortunately, the Factory machines and riders did their job, forcing the Evesham rider back, finally finishing in a creditable ninth place.

Andrews again drove off the line well in his second outing and this time went to fifth place, but again his position was eroded.

He continued to push hard but the front end let go at Druids forcing him out of the race on unlucky lap 13.

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