Folkestone rider David Hallett and his team have had a positive step regarding the setup of his Triumph 675 mid way through the season contending the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship. 
Hallett said: “We had problems with setup and my head, it took me a while and I had not ridden the 600 before.  Now we are starting to get there.  My confidence took a knock for the first part of the season because we were struggling with the bike and I was crashing a lot.  I couldn’t find a setup I was comfortable with and I was pushing it too much and kept crashing.”
“We had a bit of a re-shuffle, got somebody else to look at the bike and from there it made it a lot easier to ride.  Literally in a two week time span we went from struggling to much more on the pace.  So Mallory was the start of the season as I was 12th in the championship and since Mallory I moved up to sixth, I’ve scored more points in the last three rounds than I did in the first half the season.”
This weekend he faces the technical challenge of Cadwell Park, which has not been without events including a loose master cylinder causing lack of brakes earlier in the weekend.  Hallett said: “It’s getting there now, we had a couple of hiccups.  We’ve had a few problems with setup in this session and I’ve not been round here for a couple of years and last time I rode round was on a SV650.“
After qualifying a less than satisfying 13th and fifth cup rider he said: “We are struggling with setup this weekend, bottoming out the front a fair bit, but we are making some little tweaks and changes which hopefully will make it easier.  I’m overriding at the moment to compensate so if we can make it easier to ride, that will make me smoother and faster.”
Now he is, as he admits, being more realistic with his targets, he is happier with the results that he’s now obtaining.  Especially at Knockhill where he put the Ross Aldridge Solicitors Triumph in third place whilst running much closer to the pace of front runners such as Craig Fitzpatrick.
Looking at the tracks left for 2008 Hallett said: “I’ve only ridden at Croft and Silverstone once in the Superstock cup.  It will be interesting, but think we will pick it up ok.  Cadwell is just a whole different circuit.  I think we will be good when we get to Brands which I have done so many laps of through club racing so we should definitely be up there.”
Coming to the end of his fourth year in road racing Hallett has no doubt of where he would like his career to go, he said: “I’d like one day to end up at British and one day World, but definitely British Superbikes.  I think it’s a great championship and I’d like to do it, if you can get on the right bike and with the right team.”
“In the short term I wouldn’t mind riding for one of the bigger teams in Supersport I think it’s a really good class and a great place to be.  The aim is to return next year to Supersport aiming for the championship and hopefully with the continued support of Ross Aldridge Solicitors who have been great this year.”