World Supersport - Report from Graeme Gowland
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GOWLA IMPRESSES IN SEASON OPENER
Graeme Gowland suffered a weekend of highs and lows at the season opener of the World Supersport Championship which was held at the Losail circuit in Qatar.
Gowla had put his Benjan Racing Honda CBR600RR on the 4th row of the grid with the 15th fastest lap time in qualifying, just 1.3 seconds off the pole setter Fabien Foret, on only his first visit to the desert circuit.
Gowla got a decent start as the lights went out and was in the top 20 heading into turn one before cutting across to move onto the outside line for the second corner and move up to 12th, with fellow Brit Chris ‘Stalker’ Walker closely following.
Compatriot Johnny Rea dramatically high-sided out of the race on lap two, collecting team-mate Andrew Pitt in the process, which moved Gowla up to 10th before Stalker overtook him. The third lap saw Gowla overhaul Stalker and Barry Veneman to move into the top 10 and the 2007 Spanish Supersport Champion was certainly impressing the establishment with this performance and showing he is definitely one to watch out for.
Over the next few laps Gowla battled it out with Robbin Harms, Veneman, Stalker and David Salom. But on lap seven whilst lying in 11th position the rider in front slowed down on the entry to a corner which distracted Gowla momentarily with a dire consequence as he lost the front end of his machine and crashed out of the race.
Gowla remounted but was forced to retire and pull into the pits due to the damage on his Benjan Racing Honda.
Afterwards Graeme said:
“I’m gutted to have crashed out but I can take many positives from this weekend as I qualified really well on a new circuit and I know I can run in the top 10.”
Gowla now heads to Australia for the second round of the Championship at the Phillip Island circuit which takes place this weekend and you can see live coverage of the race on British Eurosport from 2am on Sunday morning.
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February 26th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Unfortunate for Graeme, he was going really well upon till that point. Good luck for Phillip Island!
February 26th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Good man Gowla were all supporting you superb result in my eyes
steve dunn
April 1st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
BenJan Racing with Graeme Gowland,and the Magic tuner Aart Nolen,from Stryen in Holland