Marty Nutt and the Nutt travel.com/Dawn/T&G team endured a long and tough weekend at Brands Hatch but their hard work was finally rewarded at the latest round of the British Supersport Championship with a solid top ten finish. After taking 21st in Saturday's race, the Coleraine rider bounced back strongly to take tenth in Sunday's feature race, a huge lift for all concerned.
After suffering with a broken clutch after just 5 laps of Saturday's free practice session, Marty fought back from the lack of track time to post the 17th fastest time in qualifying for a fifth row start in Saturday's 'Sprint' race. The safety car was immediately deployed after a three-rider crash at Paddock Hill and Marty crossed the line at the end of the first lap in 20th place, a position he was ultimately unable to improve upon. Indeed, he was shuffled back to a disappointing 21st place at the chequered flag as he again struggled with speed off the corners. The result also meant he was further back on the grid for Sunday's longer race.
The initial race start was red flagged due to an incident so it was restarted over 14 laps only to be stopped again when the Triumph pairing of Dan Cooper and Luke Mossey crashed out. The race was started for a third time and at the end of the first lap Marty had advanced forward significantly to 15th place and this soon became 14th a lap later. Jimmy Hill crashed out on lap 5 promoting Marty further and when he overtook John Simpson he was up to 12th with half of the race still to run. Indeed, lapping quicker than he had done all weekend, Marty was rewarded at the chequered flag with a strong 10th place to put a smile on the faces of all of the team.
Speaking later, a relieved Marty commented; "I'll take that! After the weekend we've had, I'd have been happy with a point so to finish in the top ten is a major boost to all of us as we've got a distinct lack of grunt off the corners and it's really hurting us at all of the circuits at the moment. I was on the edge of the top 15 throughout practice and qualifying but that was when I was lapping on my own - as soon as I get into a race situation, we're being punished. We tried a few different things for Saturday's race but they didn't help at all whilst I was also suffering from a lack of rear grip. I don't know if the rain shower earlier had caused it but I was struggling in so many areas."
"I changed the gearing drastically for Sunday's race and stretched the rev limit out although that was putting a bit of extra stress on the engine. There were a few crashes out there which obviously helped us but I also managed to overtake a few people too so it was nice to round the weekend off with a good, enjoyable race. I knew it would take us a few rounds to get up to speed what with it being a new bike and all that but we don't seem to be making the headway I'd hoped for and it's frustrating as I'm giving it absolutely everything every time I go out. We are making improvements though and there's a 3-week gap now until the next round so we'll keep our heads down, keep working hard and look for some strong results at Cadwell."
Marty will be back in action at Cadwell Park with the Lincolnshire venue hosting Round 9 on August 27-29.