Beverley racer James Westmoreland competed in the twelfth and final round of the 2017 British Superbike Championship on board the Gearlink Kawasaki ZX-10R around the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
Qualifying saw him place the Kawasaki twenty third on the grid with a 1min 26.4sec lap for the first of the weekend’s three races.
As the lights went green ‘Westy’ made a good start but on lap three the race was stopped due to a multi bike crash. Once racing resumed ‘Westy’ started from sixteenth place and did battle with those around him over a reduced length of sixteen laps and took the chequered flag in fourteenth place.
Race two saw him start from sixteenth place. As racing got underway he lost two places off the start and a further two during lap two. Lap three and four saw him lose another two places, now running twenty second he was playing catchup.
Lap eight saw him start to chase down those ahead and start making up some places. He continued the chasing down for the remainder of the race and eventually crossed the line in eighteenth place at the end of the twenty lap race.
For the final race of the day he started from twenty second, dropping a place off the line which he soon regained he now set about closing in on those ahead.
The safety car was deployed on lap seven due to Leon Haslam’s crash with racing resuming on lap eight. Now twenty first he continued pushing but to no avail and remained here until the chequered flag.
He finishes the 2017 season in twentieth place in the standings on twenty five points.
Report & Photo by David Holland
