Team Blackhorse Yamahas Conor Cummins extended his points scoring sequence to 8 meetings when he finished in 13th place in the final round of the 2009 Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship at Oulton Park on Sunday. The three points ensured that he finished in 10th place overall in the series and also meant that he finished in the points in every single round contested, his only no-score coming due to missing the Thruxton meeting in May when on Isle of Man TT duty.
With typical autumn conditions greeting the riders throughout the weekend, the opening qualifying session on Friday came to a premature end when rain began to fall half way through the session and no-one was able to go quicker than what they had done in the opening handful of laps. That left Conor in 15th place going into Saturdays final qualifying session where he promptly took over a second off his lap time in the dry conditions. However, he was bumped back a place to 16th overall and so the Manxman lined up on the fourth row of the grid.
The weather was at its kindest when Sundays 14-lap race got underway and Conor maintained his starting position on the opening lap before being relegated to 17th a lap later. However, lapping half a second quicker than what hed done in practice, by half race distance hed moved up to 13th, again embroiled in a big fight for the final top ten positions, no less than 9 riders battling it out for 8th place. Briefly up to 12th place, fellow road racer Gary Johnson edged him back to 13th on the ninth lap and Conor took the chequered flag in that position for three more hard earned points. The result moved him on to a total of 68 points for the season, which meant he finished 10th overall in one of the most fiercely fought Championships and it also meant he was the second highest placed Yamaha rider.
Speaking later, the 23-year old Manxman said; Once again, I pushed as hard as I could and did the best I could so it was good to finish in the points once more and finish inside the top ten of the Championship. Its been a hard season but Ive loved every minute of it and working with Ian and the entire Team Blackhorse Yamaha squad has been truly fantastic. Weve had a solid, consistent year and Im happy enough with the results and to finish as the second highest Yamaha rider shows what a good job weve all done. Ive got two more meetings, in Australia and Macau, to look forward to now and Ill be aiming to finish the season on a high note there.
Conor now has a two week break before heading to Australia for the Kings of Wanneroo meeting, which, in turn, is followed by the Macau Grand Prix where he will be riding for the Paul Bird Kawasaki World Superbike team. |
