BRITISH SUPERBIKE WASH-OUT AT MONDELLO
23 May 2006 - Jon Kirkham

The Bennetts British Superbike Championship was cancelled for the first time in its history due to extreme weather conditions at the Mondello circuit in County Kildare, Ireland with the Scuderia Stellare team completing only qualifying and race day warm-up.

Afternoon qualifying on the Saturday initially went well with Scuderia Stellare rider Jon Kirkham comfortably running in eighth before a fall on a high-speed corner ended any chance for him to improve his times. As the session reached its conclusion times began to tumble and the Derbyshire rider eventually finished just outside the top twenty.

Nursing a badly bruised elbow, Kirkham and his Suzuki GSXR were lucky to emerge relatively unscathed and he was fully fit for race-day where he recorded the fifth fastest time in a wet warm-up as storm clouds loomed.

Not long after the heavens well and truly opened and as circuit staff desperately tried to clear standing water from the track it became clear that is was simply not safe to race and series organisers were left with little alternative but to cancel.

Scuderia Stellare spokesperson Chris Johnson said it was the right decision by the circuit and the MCRCB.

“The weather was just atrocious. It was clear to all concerned that it wasn’t safe to race and the MCRCB have made the right call. We as a team fully support their decision.”

The Mondello Park round will not be rescheduled and the next event for the Scuderia Stellare team is at Mallory Park, Leicestershire on June 4.

www.jonkirkham.com

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