2006 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup,
Rd 5 Brno, Czech Republic
Race, Sun 23rd July

The fifth round race in the 2006 FIM Superstock Cup ended in disaster for Beowulf Racing and rider Nick Henderson (Suzuki) at Brno today.
Having put in their best performance of the season so far, qualifying 17th and making exactly the right tyre choices during the rain-hit timing sessions all weekend, Henderson crashed out on the second lap of the delayed race in an incident involving Enrique Rocamora (Yamaha) and Matej Smrz (Honda). It came as a bitter blow to the likeable Aussie who looked set for his first points haul of the season and to the Shepton Mallet-based team who are desperate to re-establish themselves as front-runners in this feeder class to the prestigious World Superbike series. Italian Ayrton Badovini (MV Augusta) went on to notch up his third race win of the year.

The day had started so well. After two days of intense heat, mugginess and thunderstorms the temperatures were much more bearable around the 3.4-mile forest-lined track. During the ten-minute warm-up session Henderson ran with the pack and retained his 17th place on the grid, lapping less than two-tenths of a second away from a points-scoring position.

The team’s problems began even before the race started. The planned 12-lapper had to be delayed following an oil spill in the World Superbike warm-up session. When the race finally got away in the afternoon, there were a couple of further stoppages due to accidents, cutting its distance back to seven laps at the third attempt.

Henderson made his usual excellent start and had moved up a place by the end of the first lap. Trying even harder in the second, he was unable to avoid an incident between Smrz and Rocamora: Smrz had already fallen after running into the back of Rocamora’s rear wheel. Trying to change direction, Nick could not avoid clipping the helmet of the Czech rider and went down himself with the Beowulf Suzuki picking up extensive damage in the process. The fact that with just one full race lap under his belt the Australian had still managed to set the second-fastest top speed of the entire race, at 168.3mph, didn’t come as much consolation after all the hard work he had put in over the weekend.

Although the day didn’t end with the result that the rider and team had been looking for, they can at least take solace from the fact that they had proven they are still a competitive force in this year’s championship. It’s a point they will want to underline when the series moves to it’s next round at Brands Hatch in two week’s time.