Beowulf Racing’s Nick Henderson (Suzuki) finally got his first real race of the 2006 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup season at Silverstone today. Battling with Irishman Mark Pollock (EMS Racing Suzuki) for the final third of the 15-lap race, the Australian crossed the line in 23rd place, just three-tenths of a second behind Pollock. At the front of the field the race was won by Italian Claudio Corti (Yamaha), ending the previous back-to-back victories of fellow countryman Allessandro Polita (Suzuki).

After two days of mixed weather conditions, the sun finally arrived at the Northamptonshire circuit. The Beowulf team, based at Shepton Mallet in the UK, had experimented with various settings to their machine all weekend, so as not to be held hostage to the predictably unpredictable British climate come race day. When Henderson slammed in his fastest lap of the weekend during the 10-minute warm-up session whilst the front of the field generally went slower than their qualifying times, the team’s tactics were vindicated.

Henderson made his usual excellent start to the race, immediately jumping up three positions into 22nd place by the end of the first lap. In with a pack to fight against for the next few laps Henderson gained and lost positions but it was German Leonardo Biliotti (MV Augusta) who eventually emerged as the Australian’s target. Fluffing an overtaking move just before the two-thirds point, Henderson fell back into the clutches of Pollock who had been getting steadily closer. On the 11th lap the Irishman seized the initiative and moved past Henderson into 23rd place. With the red mist fully in his eyes, Nick stayed on the EMS rider’s tail and retook the position at the Abbey hairpin 3 laps later. However, the Australian had shown his hand too early and Pollock fought back at Copse corner on the final circuit to be the first of the two Suzuki’s to cross the finishing line.

Happy but exhausted afterwards, Henderson explained how he initially lost ground to Pollock: “I was having a great time, finally having other people around me to race against. When I messed up my overtaking move earlier I began to worry about staying in front of the guys behind me. That’s something you should never do. I lost concentration, fell back slightly and handed Mark the opportunity to get ahead of me. I’m still not happy to be finishing so far down the field but the standard of riding here is very high and at least I’m getting some proper racing under my belt.”

Although competitors on the track, the Beowulf and EMS teams are travel mates when journeying to the overseas circuits, with Pollock often residing in the Beowulf team truck. No doubt he will be checking that Henderson has not placed any nails in his bed when they set off for the fourth round of the series, held at Misano, in four weeks time.