Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton is feeling frustrated ahead of the opening MCE British Superbike race at Thruxton this afternoon. The Scot is puzzled with the lack of pace with his bike, and this was evident to see during yesterday’s qualifying outing.

The Hawick lad only narrowly made it into Q2, but never made it inside the top ten, to challenge for a front row start.

Easton and his team have been trying everything to make his Kawasaki goes faster, but to no avail, and he will start race one from 18th on the grid, rounding up the sixth row – leaving the rider feeling disappointed.

“I can’t put my finger on it for the reason that I am lacking race pace, basically it is a front end bike balance problem.  I am finding it difficult carrying the speed and holding the line.I have had success here in the past – I even did the double last year in the Supersport class, and I love this track," said Easton, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"This week we haven’t found a set-up at all, we have made a lot of changes and ended up going backwards – leaving us scratching our heads. It is frustrating for all of us. I think Shakey has got some complaints, but he is still at the sharp end, and fourth on the grid.

“But there is definitely improvements we can make. I think yesterday afternoon we were half a second off pole, but it still didn’t feel good. But in qualifying we ended up going backwards. Warm up will be crucial for us – so hopefully we can go forward and get as many points in the race as we can."