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Brendan Roberts suffered a disaster this weekend in the National Superstock Championship at Croft Circuit. After running consistently in second place for most of the practice and qualifying sessions Roberts was only let down in the race by the unpredictable British weather conditions. A brief but heavy shower made Roberts and the Buildbase Ducati team opt for full wet tyres, which could only see him struggle to ninth position in the 14-lap race.

In the baking conditions on Friday and Saturday the young Australian looked comfortable on the Ducati 1098 and fresh from his fifth place in the European Championships at Brands Hatch last weekend, it looked like he was to make a welcome return to the podium in the British Championships.

After the cancellation to the round at Oulton Park he was eager to get back onto the podium steps in the UK but it sadly was not to be this weekend at Croft. The brisk shower left the track very damp but rapidly drying and it was a tough decision as to what tyres to run with. The Buildbase Team and Roberts stuck with their original decision but the 2.12-mile circuit soaked up the excess water quickly and as the lights turned green Roberts slowly went backwards.

Fighting with the 1098 and the tyres wearing out on every lap he had to ensure that he brought the bike home. Battling hard he could only salvage ninth place. A disappointed Roberts commented “I’m really gutted about the results today as the entire Buildbase Ducati team have worked so hard throughout the weekend to get everything perfect. We’d run well all weekend and had a great set up for the bike in the dry conditions. It was a real gamble as to what tyres we used and in the end stayed with the wets, which was obviously the wrong decision. It was the only rain shower of the day and totally turned it up-side-down. I felt very comfortable on the bike during practice and qualifying and was hoping to get the team a podium place for all their hard work and dedication. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get some decent results at Cadwell Park in a couple of weeks time.”

Brendan’s next race in the UK is at Cadwell Park on the 25th – 27th August. A full timetable of events can be found at the link below: -

http://www.mcrcb-events.co.uk/gallery/cadwell%20park%20final.pdf

National Superstock Results – Croft Circuit

Neill                Suzuki
Kirkham          Yamaha
Seeley             Yamaha
Kennaugh         Yamaha
Laverty            Buildbase Ducati
Jackson            Yamaha
Brogan             Honda
Venter              Yamaha
ROBERTS      BUILDBASE DUCATI
Ingram             Suzuki

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