Ducati Manchester Victorious at Round 1 848 Challenge at Brands Hatch

Wow - what a weekend that was at Brands Hatch for the opening round of the 848 Challenge.

Track conditions were difficult to say the least, and overall it was pretty, cold, wet, slippery and generally miserable conditions to go ride bikes in!!

Qualifying was interesting and we found we had a lot to do, to get on the pace with the front runners, but we learnt a lot, and made a raft of changes prior to Race 1. Following a bit of a balls up in Pit Lane, we ended starting from the back of the grid for Race 1. The first race was messy, and ended up being red flagged, and we finished P5 - which given the conditions we were pretty happy with.

The finishing place, put us on P8 Qualification for race two this afternoon. Again conditions were treacherous, with pretty much zero grip which varied around the indie circuit. We got a reasonable start making up a couple of places, and then there was a 4 bike pile up, resulting in P1-P4 crashing, and we seized the advantage.

We had a few "moments" where the back end tried to over take the front, but our rider - Robbie Brown managed to keep it shiny side up. We were passed in the next few laps by two riders, and in a banzai move on the last lap, we managed to retake the lead, and crossed the line to take the Chequered Flag in P1!!!

So all in all, a very successful weekend and a great start to the 848 Challenge Campaign.... we go in to second round leading the series with 31.5 points.