Picture: McCoy slides around the opposition.

Fuchs Kawasaki's Garry McCoy and Andrew Pitt battled persistently to finish just outside the points in yesterday's British Grand Prix, former Speedway ace McCoy entertaining the crowd with his unsurpassed sliding skills, as pictured, along the way.

Both riders made excellent starts, quickly improving on their qualifying positions, McCoy actually getting to race the competition for the first two-thirds of the race before dropping off the pace.

Picture: McCoy slides around the opposition.

Fuchs Kawasaki's Garry McCoy and Andrew Pitt battled persistently to finish just outside the points in yesterday's British Grand Prix, former Speedway ace McCoy entertaining the crowd with his unsurpassed sliding skills, as pictured, along the way.

Both riders made excellent starts, quickly improving on their qualifying positions, McCoy actually getting to race the competition for the first two-thirds of the race before dropping off the pace.

"The first half of the race was great. I was in amongst Nobu, Jezza and Kiyonari (pictured) and actually racing, when in the past I've been mostly riding around on my own," he said. "I did my best to stay 15th and in the points, but then I started to lose grip with about ten laps to go and had to back off and try and conserve the rear tyre and Nobu and Kiyonari passed me back. The set-up and wheelie problem was much better for the race, although I had some chatter over the final five laps. The bike felt pretty loose and, at times, it felt like the rev limiter was cutting in early."

Meanwhile Pitt struggled under braking with a full fuel load and an off-track excursion at the end of the back straight on lap 11 cost him valuable time and he completed a lonely race to 17th place.

"I got a good start, but I was struggling to get the bike stopped in the early stages of the race and actually ran on and up the escape road at the end of the back straight at one point," he confirmed. "That mistake lost me a lot of time. The tyres went off a bit towards the end of the race, but overall the set-up was pretty good and will provide a good starting point for our Brno test next week."

Kawasaki technical director Hamish Jamieson watched much of the 30-lap race from various points around the circuit and was able to confirm the effects of the set-up and engine compromises made to meet the unique challenge of the Donington Park circuit.

"We had to make some compromises with set-up and gearing to counter the wheelie problem the riders have been experiencing this weekend. Unfortunately, these compromises didn't do us any favours in the engine performance department," said Jamieson. "From watching both riders from trackside I could see that they were losing out on acceleration because of the taller gearing we've been forced to run here.

"Both riders also lost some rear tyre grip towards the end of the race, but we suspected that this may well be a problem, as we spent so much time on set-up during practice and qualifying that we didn't have the opportunity to complete all the race endurance tests we originally had planned," he added.

The Kawasaki Racing Team will travel to Brno in the Czech Republic next week to complete an important three-day midseason test session.

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