With Team ILR's team owner/manager Ian Lougher at the Isle of Man TT races in support of newcomer Joey Thompson, both the team's National Superstock 600 runners Ozzy Madey and Robert Kennedy (Team Sandown) were in action at Donington Park at the weekend when the latest round of the championship acted as one of the support races to the World Superbike Championship round.

One thing immediately clear from the schedule was how little time the 600 riders would have on track and how 'full-on' it was, with two practice sessions within two hours of each other late on Saturday afternoon, only one of which counted as a qualifying session.

However the old saying it's the same for everyone applied and the lads knuckled down and got on with it.

Free practice saw Kennedy on the pace in 7th with Madey in 25th and having gear problems, with less than a second covering the first dozen riders.

In the later qualifying session Robert was again well up in 8th with the top 14 all within one second.

Ozzy was left ruing the tight schedule, as he was still working to rectify his gear issues when the session got underway and he never got a lap in, although he was allowed to start the race, albeit from the back of the grid.

The race proved to be disastrous for Kennedy, after a bad start from the third row and getting boxed in at the first corner he was soon riding strongly and with three laps to go he was going for 3rd when another rider came across the front off him.

Robert hit the brakes and came off and took the other rider down as well.
Madey meanwhile was working equally hard and was pushing for 20th when the race was red-flagged on the final lap.

Team ILR owner/manager Ian Lougher:

"It was such a shame for Robert that his race ended in the kitty litter after being taken out by another rider for the second race in a row, especially after coming through from 15th after a bad start. His luck has to change soon.

Ozzy had a gearbox issue in free practice which normally would have been fixable within an hour or two, but the ridiculous timetable that was laid out by the organisers meant that he failed to get out in qualifying in time so had to start from the back of the grid but rode well to come home in 21st position."



Ozzy Madey:

"In FP1 it was a case of steady away on scrub tyres, running just outside of the Top 20 but comfortable on the bike. We did suffer from the fairly major gear selector issues so I parked the bike with around 5 minutes of the session left.

We worked hard to reach P21 with roughly eight laps to go, we 'should' have nabbed P20 but red flags on the last lap put an end to that. Still a good end to the weekend, and very nice to have decent weather, albeit with no track time.

Thank-you to everyone who helped us over the weekend as well as all our sponsors."

Robert Kennedy:

"A very frustrating weekend for me and the team.

We had an ok qualifying and ended up in P8, but with some problem the team worked hard into the early hours to get the bike sorted for the race on Sunday, something I am very grateful for.

Down at the bottom of Craner Curves we got good momentum and got up the inside of the 3rd place guy.

I thought I was past as I couldn't see him in my view as I approached the corner aiming for the apex of the Old Hairpin.
But out of the corner of my eye he came back into my view coming across the front of me which resulted me hitting the brakes and going down and taking him down as well with me, which was not the plan!

So frustrating because we were making so much progress during the race.

I just want to thank everyone who came over to watch and to all the people who keep making all this possible.

Big thanks to Team ILR and all the Sandown team and the sponsors and all my family."