Dutch competitor Nadieh Schoots was in action at Brands Hatch at the weekend, the Kent venue hosting round eight of the 2016 Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship and the ILR Kawasaki rider enjoyed one of her strongest meetings of the year, claiming 25th place in Sunday’s 15-lap race.
A time of 1m36.349s in Friday’s free practice session around the 2.43-mile Grand Prix circuit placed Nadieh in 32nd position and after improving her lap time by almost 1.5s in the opening qualifying session, she moved up two places to 30th. Saturday’s final 25-minute qualifying session was held in hot, sunny conditions but although Nadieh reduced her lap times by over a second, setting a new best time of 1m33.843s, she ended up in 32nd overall.
Nadieh getting more comfortable with the ZX10 at Brands GP, photo by www.burnoutmedia.uk
With a near identical time recorded in morning warm-up, the 24-year old was looking forward to the 15-lap race and after four laps of the race she’d already moved up four places and into the top thirty. As the race wore one, she encountered arm pump once more but soon found a way round the problem and although she was riding in a slightly hindered fashion, her pace remained the same.
Indeed, she stayed consistent all the way to the end of the race with her fastest lap being 1m33.914s and with a number of riders falling during the course of the 15 laps, she continued to move forward. Despite the arm pump problem, she crossed the line in 25th place for her second best result of the season, just behind her 24th place at Snetterton last month.
Nadieh Schoots: “It’s been a really positive and enjoyable weekend again although the problem with my arm did hinder me in the race. I had the bike set up wrong at the beginning of the weekend but we soon got the chassis working how I needed it to be and I was confident of a good result in the race. It started really well for me and I overtook a couple of riders but after about five laps, my arm started to swell quite badly.”
“I’d had a few issues with it over the course of the weekend but the physio had helped considerably; in the race though, it wouldn’t go away but I managed to find a way of riding round the problem. It felt like I was riding really slowly but my lap times stayed the same which was obviously pleasing and I knew I had a decent gap to the rider behind me. It’s a really good finish for me and I’m really chuffed with how the weekend went so I’m really looking forward to the next round.”
he next round of the series takes place at Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire on August 27-29.