Tyre poser a real puzzle for Simon

3:45pm Wednesday 2nd July 2008

ROUND six of the Bennetts British Superbike at Mallory Park produced some of the most exciting racing of the series with Simon Andrews and the Jentin Lloyds British Superbike Team moving up to ninth place in the Championship.

Last Saturday's qualifying produced fast lap times and the Evesham racer was on a roll running in the top six when a marshal thought he saw a problem with the bike.

Andrews pulled into the pits but nothing was adrift on the bike so, with a quick tyre change, he was back out. However, the rhythm was lost and there wasn't enough time to get back on the pace and he finally finished 13th.

Sunday's opener saw Andrews move through the field up to seventh place and, undeterred with tearing his leathers and dropping back to ninth position, he worked his way back up to seventh place to claim his best result to date.

Tyre choice was the main factor in race two because it was hard to predict what the weather would do.

The choice was for intermediates and, for 13 laps, Andrews was in a podium position but, by lap 18 of 30, the bikes that had chosen slick tyres, started to come into their own.

Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before Andrews was pushed backwards from second place but he still finished a very creditable seventh on some extremely well worn tyres!