EMS Racing claimed fifth place in the sixth round of the European Superstock Championship at Brands Hatch in front of a weekend crowd of 104,000 race fans. Although it wasn’t the result Craig Coxhell and the team were looking for, it has escalated them up into second in the championship standings after out-scoring two of his closest rivals.

The team arrived at Brands Hatch in high spirits and confident of a good result after winning last time out at Brno. With previous experience at the Brands Hatch, Craig knew what he needed from the EMS Racing GSXR-1000 and the team worked hard throught practice and qualifying to achieve it. Despite their efforts Craig struggled with grip, which meant he was losing time on the way into and out of the corners. Craig rode well to overcome the problems and managed to claim fifth to secure a place on the second row.

The 15 lap race of the 4.197KM Brands Hatch circuit got underway in bright conditions in front of the huge crowd. Knowing the importance of a good start Craig fired the EMS Racing Suzuki GSXR-1000 off the line well and scythed in to second place behind pole man Keenan Sofuoglu. Craig was desperate to get away at the front, but as the race progressed he began struggling with the grip levels and set-up of the bike and dropped down to fifth at the finish.

“That was really hard work. We haven’t had a good set up all weekend and we were hoping that we were going to be able to find a good setting right up until the end of warm-up this morning. I’ve been chasing the front end of the bike and the rear end has been backing into the turns and spinning up on the exit. I just didn’t have any confidence in the front end today and that meant I was losing a lot of time on the brakes and by running wide.” explained Craig.

“At the start I tried to stay with Keenan (Sofuoglu) who was away at the front of the race but I just couldn’t physically do it. I was trying so hard that I had to have a bit of a breather three quarters of the way through the race so that I could get back in to my rhythm. I was just trying to force the bike to do something it didn’t want to do.”

“We’re second in the championship now but we’re actually further away from the lead than we were and I’m really disappointed with that. It hasn’t been a good weekend and I think that we’re fortunate that I beat Vankeymeulen and that Roccoli crashed out.” He concluded.