BSB: Dennis Hobbs Mallory notes

Double Delight For Dennis

Hobbs Racing rider Dennis Hobbs rewarded his hard working team with not one but two victories as a double win kept his hopes of the THINK! British Superbike Cup well and truly alive after a masterful display at Mallory Park.

Riding the Scott Leathers backed 1000cc Suzuki, the 22 year old from Guisborough had not won a round all season but going into the Leicestershire circuit, he made his intentions clear as he set sixth fastest time overall during the early stages of final qualifying.

However, a minor gearbox problem put paid to his chances of a sensational row two start as Hobbs had to sit out the remainder of the session which resulted in him dropping back to tenth but still the top Superbike Cup rider.

With the rain of the previous two meetings thankfully behind him, Dennis relished in the dry conditions as he scrapped it out with a number of the factory stars around the technically demanding Mallory speedbowl during race one, eventually coming home in tenth place overall, just pipping the Virgin Mobile Yamaha's of former Mallory winner Steve Plater and team mate Gary Mason as well as Kieran Clarke and the ex championship winning Ducati of Iain MacPherson.

Having sampled the top step of the podium in the opening race in front of yet another massive BSB crowd, Hobbs was keen to repeat the feat and despite a race stoppage and two pace car interventions -- one of which controversially cost him a number of places -- Hobbs stuck to the task and brought the machine home in 12th place but more importantly, one place in front of series leader James Ellison.

As a result, Hobbs has cut the gap to just 39 points going into his home race at Croft in a month's time whereby he is red hot favourite to add to his tally of race wins around the North Yorkshire circuit.

"I needed those wins but I was disappointed not to finish higher in the second leg as a number of riders overtook me before the green flag on the line when I was busy avoiding crashing into Kieran Clarke who went down at the Devils Elbow!" said Dennis. "Those were important points and I'm looking at reducing the gap even further at Croft"

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