Nadieh Schoots was in action at Cadwell Park on Bank Holiday Monday for round nine of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship and it proved to be an excellent meeting for the Dutch girl as she recorded her best result of the season finishing in 21st place.
Nadieh and the amazing Cadwell Park crowd, photo by burnoutmedia.uk
The weekend didn’t get off to the greatest of starts for the ILR Kawasaki rider though when she failed to record a time in Saturday’s free practice session due to an issue with a rear wheel sensor but she regrouped well for first qualifying to record the 32nd fastest time. She remained in that position after the second and final qualifying session but improved her lap times by a second, to 1m34.436s, thus significantly cut the gap to the riders in front of her on the grid.
Monday’s 15-lap race saw perfect conditions at the challenging Lincolnshire venue but a slightly sluggish start saw Nadieh fall behind Matt Pearce who rode some very defensive lines to keep ahead. A safety car period saw Pearce fail to close the gap sufficiently to the riders ahead of him which allowed them to break away and although Nadieh overtook Pearce the moment the safety car pulled in, she was unable to make up any further ground.
A few slides and moments meant she instead concentrated on pulling away from Pearce which she duly did and with a number of crashes during the race she eventually crossed the line in 21st for her best result of the season so far.
Photo by Tim Keeton - Impact Images Photography
Nadieh Schoots: “The sensor issue in practice wasn’t the ideal start to the weekend but having tested previously at Cadwell, I had a good set up although we still struggled with the traction control in Q1. The second qualifying session was held a lot later in the day when temperatures were a lot cooler and although the plan was to dip into the 1m33’s, a combination of traffic and yellow flags meant I never quite got that lap in.”
“In the race, Matt made a better start than me and rode very defensively so as soon as the safety car pulled in, I took the opportunity to fly past! I then set about closing the gap to the group in front but after a few moments, I settled for opening a gap up over Matt. With all the crashes, 21st was my best result of the year whilst I was pleased to keep the group in front of me in my sights for the entire race distance. I’m happy with the race and am now looking for some redemption at the next round at Oulton having not qualified there earlier in the year!”