Barry Burrell and Richard Cooper took Buildbase BMW Motorrad's first three victories of the 2011 season at a rain-lashed Thruxton Circuit.

 

Richard Cooper dominated the Superstock 1000 race, the first of the day. His race win leaves him in fourth place in the series and just 22 points from the championship leader.

 

Richard Cooper said: "Everyone's been working hard on and off the track to get here but it's paid off with our first win of the year. We've been consistently high in the points this season but now we've gone right to the top. There's a few weeks off before the next round at Knockhill and it's a great feeling to be going into the break with the best possible result - and a trophy to stick on my dashboard on the drive home!"

 

In the first British Superbike/BSB-EVO race of the weekend, which was delayed and re-classified as a wet race thanks to ever-worsening rainfall, the majority of riders opted for full wets.

 

Buildbase BMW Motorrad's BSB-EVO rider Barry Burrell worked his way up through the field to finish at the top of the EVO class, and 13th place overall, taking his first win of the season. The team's two Superbike riders, Ian Lowry and John Laverty, in their first wet race on their new BMW S 1000 RRs, found that the bike set-up had too little weight over the front wheel for such poor weather. Ian and John finished 16th and 20th overall.

 

Race two was even wetter, with the overall length reduced to 15 laps. Once again, Barry Burrell got off to a storming start, soon moving up to second placed EVO rider. On the final lap, Barry fought through to top placed EVO rider and 16th overall to secure his second win of the day - and third place in the BSB-EVO championship standings. John Laverty finished in 13th place; securing some welcome points, with Ian Lowry bringing his BMW S 1000 RR home in 22nd place.

 

Barry Burrell said: "I wasn't feeling too great last night with a bit of flu and a headache, but it all came together today! In the first race I expected to do well, but I didn't think I'd get the win. I decided to start steady and just built up the speed and went from 24th to 13th. I just kept catching and passing people and worked my way up to the front to win my first EVO race. The second race was similar, I took it steady at the start and kept it smooth and just caught and passed riders. Every time I passed a rider I managed to fill their face full of spray and pull away. It worked, I went from 17th on the start to win my second EVO race of the day. I've never had a race like it, there was so much rain and spray on the back straight at 180mph that I couldn't see a thing. But I held on and won. Fantastic feeling."

Stuart Hicken, team principal, said: "To come away from today with three wins is absolutely wonderful. Barry's double in the EVO championship is a massive bonus. He's really started to believe in himself and he's finished ahead of many of the full Superbike riders. Richard decided he could win today and went on and did exactly that! Again, he's going to have more confidence in himself and we'll see even more from him.

 

"The two Superbikes have come on leaps and bounds this weekend. Ian was particulary strong all through the qualifying sessions but the weather really put a dampener on the superbikes performance as we have no wet weather experience of the RR. When we made the changes to the bikes after the first race, John came through from the back to finish in 13th place. 

 

"We have made a massive set forward with the superbikes performance this weekend  and were consistently the fastest bikes through the speed trap.All we need is for it to be dry at the next round at Knockhill."

 

 

2) Glen Richards (WFR Honda)

3) Patric Muff (Tyco Honda)

4) Aaron Zanotti (Quattro Spike BMW)

5) Graeme Gowland (WFR Honda)

 

 

2) Glen Richards (WFR Honda)

3) Simon Andrews (PR Racing Kawasaki)

4) Patric Muff (Tyco Honda)

5) Graeme Gowland (WFR Honda)

 

 

1) 145 pts - Alex Lowes 

2) 125 pts - Glen Richards (WFR Honda)

4) 103 pts - Patric Muff (Tyco Honda)

5) 94 pts - Simon Andrews (PR Racing Kawasaki)

 

 

2) Danny Buchan (MSS Colchester Kawasaki)

3) Howie Mainwaring (MSS Colchester Kawasaki)

4) Tristan Palmer (GBmoto Honda)

5) Victor Cox (Blackhorse Kawasaki)

 

 

1) 81 pts - Danny Buchan (MSS Colchester Kawasaki)

2) 79 pts - Tristan Palmer (GBmoto Honda)

3) 61 pts - Jason O'Halloran (HM Plant Honda)

5) 30 pts - Luke Quigley (Astro Racing BMW)