Northpoint Honda Racing ‘storms’ Silverstone grid

World Supersport
By Carly Rathmell
May 31 2005

It was a mixed weekend for the Northpoint Honda Racing squad, consisting of riders Craig Jones and Cal Crutchlow, at the World Supersport race at Silverstone.

The weekend was full of highs and lows and, although the pairing both suffered clutch problems in the race, they were still inspired by the team’s performance and the experience they gained through the rest of the weekend.

20-year-old Jones proved why he is leading the British Championship by qualifying his Northpoint Honda in third on the grid, alongside factory World Supersport riders Charpentier and Curtain. Jones stunned some of the World Supersport riders as he showed them the quality of British riders.

Crutchlow went out and set himself a fantastic qualifying time in the first session on Friday, by putting his Honda on the front row. Having got off to such a great start, a crash during Saturday qualifying, caused by the horrendous winds, saw him on row three in eleventh place. The beginning of the weekend had seen the young 19-year-old from Coventry sitting comfortably in fourth position with Jones in sixth.

Northpoint Honda Racing stole the show on the grid, with TV and camera crews from around the world focusing on the Star Wars Stormtroopers that had been brought along to raise the profile of the team. As the lights changed it was Jones that gained the hole-shot and led the World Championship riders into the first few turns, whilst Crutchlow had also made up ground and was sitting in eighth. Unfortunately the race ended prematurely for both riders.

Obviously the team and riders were extremely disappointed not to have finished, and Team Principal Gary Ekerold summarised it, saying, “Up to the point where we retired we were proving that the Northpoint Honda Racing can compete at World Championship level. We have taken many encouraging lessons from the weekend and, although we were unable to finish the race, I’m sure the riders would have put on a good performance and gained some strong results. On the positive side, at least the problem arose this weekend and not next weekend at Croft. It was great to watch, and both Craig and Cal rode exceptionally well throughout the weekend which is a true credit to them both.”

The Northpoint riders will be back in action this weekend at the British Supersport race at Croft Circuit, North Yorkshire, on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of June 2005.