Gavin Hunt got his 2014 National Superstock 1000cc Championship campaign underway at Brands Hatch at the weekend and the NEI Motorsport rider was unlucky to miss out on scoring points as he finished in 17th place after a typically hard fought race.
With qualifying spilt into two groups, the Manxman posted a time of 47.173s in the opening Group B session to take an excellent seventh place despite being held up by traffic on more than one occasion. However, the pace in Group A was quicker and when the times from the two sessions were combined, he ended up in 21st overall. Any chance of improving on Sunday was then thwarted by rain and so he duly lined up for Easter Monday’s 24-lap race on the seventh row of the grid.
 
The race was only three laps old when it was flagged due to an incident and it proved to be a blessing for Gavin as he’d been pushed wide in the early stages and found himself at the back of the pack. When the re-started 20-lap race got underway though, he immediately slotted inside the top twenty and here he stayed for the remainder of the race. As expected, it was incredibly frenetic around the 1.2-mile Indy circuit and whilst Gavin lay in 19th place, there was, at one stage, less than two seconds separating 12 riders from 11th place downwards.
 
With all the riders lapping at a similar pace, overtaking opportunities were limited and try as he might to move up inside the points Gavin eventually crossed the line in a hard earned 17th, less than three seconds adrift of 11th place, further proof of how competitive the class will again be in 2014. The solid result bodes well for the rest of the season, particularly as the Championship moves on to some of Gavin’s more favoured circuits.
 
Gavin Hunt: “It’s a bit disappointing to miss out on some points but the Brands Indy circuit is a strange old place and with it being so short, it’s very difficult to advance forward so a top 20 finish is a solid enough start. I was pleased the race got re-started after being pushed wide in the initial start but all the riders were running at a similar pace and it was difficult to run my own lines. I needed to be quicker out of Clearways onto the start and finish straight as that would have allowed me to make a few moves going into Paddock Hill.”
 
“Other than that, overtaking opportunities were hard to come by so it was a bit of a tough race. It was pleasing though to run with riders who regularly finished inside the top ten in 2013, including some podium finishers, and that’s more than encouraging for the rest of the year. The bike’s working really well and with a few little tweaks here and there I know it will be better still so I’m really looking forward to Oulton now as it’s much more of a rider’s circuit and one I enjoy a great deal.”
 
The second round of the series takes place at Oulton Park, Cheshire in two weeks time on May 3-5.
 
Photo - Glynne Lewis