Outstanding Results in Assen With The Help of Local Sponsors

Round eleven of the British Superbike series does not host the Stock 600 points round, but it would give Daniel the opportunity to gain track time and experience with the Supersport class.

As this was an additional round two generous local companies Andy Davies from Handcrafted Kitchens and Phil Legerwood from Legerwood Morgan assisted by donating tyres for the weekend, while Dan Page Body repairs kindly prepared all of the bodywork for the bike

The bike had been sent on its way to Assen straight from the Oulton Round so there would be no opportunity for preparation for the Supersport class

Dan started the weekend under the weather with a severe chest infection badly affecting his Asthma, and the team worked hard testing changes to the bike for the Super sport class, but there were technical issues with the NP Motorcycles ZX6R that needed to be addressed

Dan enjoyed FP1 but in FP2 he suffered a loss of power reducing his track time to only 7 laps, half of the session. Again the team worked late into the evening with changes to fuelling and mapping and more dyno runs which they believed had rectified the issues late into Friday evening

Into Qualifying and Dan went out confidently only to discover the bike had lost all power and he could not put in any qualifying laps. Off to race control to ensure Dan could complete albeit from the back of the grid (29th) and the bike was then completely reset back to a Stock bike

This would prove to be challenging for the iconic "Cathedral of Speed" circuit, but Dan knew what he had to work with and we all learnt a lot about the setup in an environment which was not a championship round for us; with everyone working well as a team to overcome the difficulties

Going into the race the conditions were so poor that the safety car went out for three laps and declared a shortened race, but as the lights were extinguished Dan had the best of starts from his 29th position up to the mid pack. He was then battling in horrendous conditions in a group of four for the first part of the race and ten entered into a battle for 9th with Jack Kennedy for the final two laps of the race with the bike squirming beneath him. The unfortunate Jack Kennedy crashed out , but Dan already had his sights set on catching Tommy Philip and was very close as he crossed the line to finish in 9th position

Daniel then found himself to be the 7th fastest rider in this wet race which placed him in 7th position for on Sundays feature race grid, but dry bright and almost perfect conditions on Sunday would mean that more horse power would be required on this fast circuit, and with the bike set to Stock that was something he didn’t have.

The best option was for him to hold on the front pack as long as possible and although he tried to stay with the pack he would cross the line in a respectable 17th

Having worked through some issues and missing half of FP2 and all of qualifying, all in all this was a successful test round for Dan and the team, managing to score Supersport points and secure valuable and exciting TV coverage.

Going into the final round of the season and Dan re visited the technical Brands Hatch GP circuit.

He was hoping for top ten finishes in both the Stock 600 and the Supersport races, and by qualifying on Saturday he was putting in lap times 2.5 seconds faster than his last visit to the circuit in July

Confident going into the race he was focussed and eager for a fantastic finish to the season, but a DNF for technical reasons in the very first lap of the race meant all he could do was watch the race from the sidelines. With no finishing position in the Stock 600 race he would not have the opportunity to take part in the Supersport Feature race.

Daniel Comments:

‘’It was an unsettling start to the 2017 season, which meant for me all of the learning started at Round 5 Snetterton, on an untested bike. Fortunately Neil Pearson my mechanic believed in my potential and built me the NP Motorcycles ZX6Rto ride for the remainder of the season.

We have all learnt a huge amount and my progression has been solid. Moreover we have worked through every problem to become stronger and put in excellent finishes not only in the Stock 600 class but the Supersport class to.

I have to thank Neil and my mum and dad for the huge amount of effort they put to my racing, and all of these fantastic sponsors who allow me to follow my passion. We are busy starting to plan for the 2018season and hopefully I will be out there showing that I can only get better" - Dan #34 Racing