Bad luck for Howie Mainwaring at Brands Hatch BSB

Raceline Photography
By blue2bikes
March 30 2006

Howie Mainwaring started off his campaign in the British Superbike series the same way as he finished it last year - disappointingly, with a blown engine during the Snetterton pre-season official practice day.

After having the engine rebuilt, it was all systems go for the first round of the championship, taking place at Brands Hatch on 26th March 2006. Unfortunately, Howie’s bad luck continued, and he had to withdraw from the race due to an electrical malfunction in the engine management systems on both of his bikes.

© Raceline Photography

Friday’s testing at Brands Hatch went well, but during Saturday’s third practice session, problems with the ECU System were discovered, making the bike erratic on fuelling and ignition settings. All attempts to rectify the problems were to be in vain, and Howie moved onto his number two bike. Bad luck was to prevail yet again for Howie, as the conditions on track worsened due to rain. Having only five minutes to go and to gain a qualifying position, it was not to be, and Howie missed out by only a few tenths of a second - due to the ECU control on his second bike giving the same symptoms as the first.

Having now had two new ECU controls fitted, and the engine set-up by Crescent Suzuki, Howie is looking forward to his next outing at Donington Park, on Sunday the 9th April, where he will be long overdue a result that he deserves. This year the British Superbike series is highly contested, and Howie must continue to at least get onto the starting grid to gain some points before others run away with the series. Howie is more than capable to gain good results, and hopefully now his bike has been scrutinised and set-up for top performance by Suzuki, he will get the all-important points required to win.