EMS Racing’s Craig Coxhell took a brilliant race win in the fifth round of the European Superstock Championship at Brno in Czech Republic. The 12 lap race turned into an epic battle with the top four riders in the championship trading places continuously in the last few laps with Craig coming out on top to secure his first win of 2005 and move to within eight points of the championship lead.

After qualifying on the front row, in fourth position, Craig made a break with the leaders and managed to hold onto fourth position throughout the opening laps, but was unable to challenge for a higher position. With each lap Craig became more comfortable on the EMS Racing Suzuki GSXR-1000 and let his three rivals fight for the lead whilst he maintained his pace and conserved his tyres in preparation for the finish.

His strategy worked perfectly and with three laps to go Craig started pushing even harder and began mixing it with his three championship rivals, Didier Vankeymeulen, Keenan Sofuoglu and Massimo Roccoli (All Yamaha). With the lead changing at virtually every corner Craig had to be aggressive and committed to gain a single position, but his progress was relentless, taking the lead on the last lap to secure his maiden win in the European Superstock Championship.

“It’s been a great weekend and today I feel like I’ve ridden as well as I did in 2003 when I won the Australian Superbike championship. I got away with the leaders but I had to work hard at the beginning because with a full fuel load the bike was pretty hard to turn. After a few laps the top three started to pull away a little bit and I started to get a bit concerned but then they started to dice and I was able to get onto the back of them. I just had to wait but then with three laps to go I thought ’this is the time’. I really wanted to win here as none of us had raced at Brno before so I went for it.” explained Craig

“In the early laps I tried to save my rear tyre because this had been a problem all weekend but at the end of the race I had good grip. With six laps to go I felt really comfortable on the bike and I had no problem doing the times so then I just waited for the right opportunity. I got up into second and was planning my attack on Sofuoglu but then Roccoli came up the inside so I had to do it all again. Once I was passed him I set Sofuoglu up again and made a good pass. Then I just tried to pull a couple of meters so that they wouldn’t be able to get back at me.” he said.

“It’s been the perfect result for the championship and I’m now up to third and only eight points off the lead. The next race is Brands Hatch which is a track I know pretty well so I’m hoping I can get another win there.” he continued.