Coxhell down and out?

Hawk Kawasaki rider Craig Coxhell sustained a broken collar bone when he crashed out of the weather affected race two at Donington Park during the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

With the championship heading straight to the bumpy high speed circuit of Thruxton in Hampshire for back to back race weekends, Coxhell has a race on his hands just to be fit to compete at the eagerly anticipated double header.

The crash came just as Coxhell was steaming his way towards the leading riders. "I was gutted to have crashed as I was up to fifth and had the front runners in my sight," he said. "I set two fastest laps, one after the other and I know that if I had stayed on then there was a good chance I would have been on the podium."

The difficult conditions meant that grip was at a minimum and Donington since its resurfacing has been notoriously slippery when wet. It was this combination of cold and wet that made it hard to keep the powerful race machinery on the tarmac. "I guess I was a little eager and the bike just came round on me and flung me over the bars. I landed heavily and had it confirmed that I have broken my collarbone," said Coxhell. "I'm gutted as we have a back to back weekend and I might have to miss the next round if it's not healed."

Coxhell's team-mate Dean Thomas opted to pull out of race two. "I had to pull in from the second race as I had no rear grip whatsoever," he said. "I'd already seen Craig crash and didn't fancy joining him." Thomas had already parted company with his Hawk Kawasaki during the wet free practice session. "I suffered a pretty hefty crash in that session, which has certainly left me feeling a little worse for wear. I was happy to have finished ninth in the first race but we have to sort some issues out with the bike before Thruxton," he concluded.

The youngest member of the Hawk team, Peter Hickman, also joined in with the crashing, falling during race one. However he did manage to bring it home in sixteenth place in race two. "This certainly is the worst weather conditions that I have ever ridden in," Hickman said. "The first race was a bit of a nightmare and I had a small off, I was determined that I just wanted to finish the second race in one piece. The conditions certainly didn't make that job very easy but I got there. I'm still enjoying it but it's very difficult, I was gutted not to have scored any points but hopefully it won't be too long coming now."

The Hawk team still have a substantial amount of development work to do to the Kawasaki but Thomas feels that the isn't just one big specific concern with the ZX10RR just a few little problems, but since the team are not familiar with the bike yet they are finding it difficult to get everything sorted out especially with limited track time on a race weekend. "It is a brand new bike we don't have any parameters or ranges to work within, the problem is you need to go out of those ranges and back in again to find them and you just don't have the time at a BSB round. We are making changes every session but there are only so many we can do, we are just behind," he explained.

The fact that there are back to back race weekends means that the team won't be able to fit in any testing before hitting the high speed Hampshire track. Although the nature of the track is likely to play into Hawks' hands as Thomas goes on to say: "Thruxton is a bumpy track and it is quite aggressive on the tyres so it is going to keep everyone semi neutral at least."