Manxman Conor Cummins endured a difficult seven days of racing last week with a crash at the British Superstock round at Knockhill at the beginning and the cancellation of the Ulster Grand Prix at the end.
The 22-year old Ramsey rider was looking to extend his run of points scoring finishes in the British Superstock Championship at the Scottish venue and although he was only 11th overall in qualifying, he was fourth quickest in the wet and with rain forecast for race day hopes were high of at least a top six finish. However, these hopes soon evaporated on the NCT Vanfit Yamaha when a third lap spill meant an early demise.
It was then over to the Ulster Grand Prix where he was reunited with a trio of McAdoo Kawasaki's for the Ulster GP Superbike, Supersport and Superstock races. He soon put the Knockhill disappointment behind him and, having made a successful debut on the McAdoo machines at July's Southern 100, Conor was immediately back on the pace.
Despite the cancellation of Wednesday's practice sessions at the Dundrod circuit, Conor soon got to grips with the 7.4-mile circuit once more and he qualified in the top 8 on Thursday for all of his classes. Particularly impressive was his Superstock lap of 128.231mph, which was inside the class lap record and only one second adrift of the pace setting Bruce Anstey. However, it was all to no avail as Saturday's race schedule was abandoned due to torrential rain, gusting winds and mist hitting the Ulster region.
Speaking about his week, Conor said: "It's been a really tough week and what promised so much has delivered nothing. I felt really comfortable in the wet at Knockhill but it was one of those days where anyone could have gone down at any time and, unfortunately, it happened to me. I'm still in the top ten of the championship though so, hopefully, I can build on that in the last four rounds.
"The Ulster was equally difficult although on Thursday afternoon, everything was coming together. The McAdoo Kawasaki's were working brilliantly around Dundrod and the lap times I was doing were very competitive so I felt very confident going into Saturday's races. Sadly, the weather put paid to that and it was a huge disappointment for everyone concerned with the meeting. The weather was really horrendous and there was no way we could have raced."
