Courtsey of McAdoo Kawasaki
McAdoo Kawasaki Racing's Conor Cummins was on the pace at Tuesday evening's opening NW200 practice session.
On his first flying lap on the 2010-spec McAdoo Kawasaki ZX-10R Superbike, Conrod topped the session for a short time until HM Plant Honda's Steve Plater took over at the head of the pack. Conrod was happy with the performance of the Ninja ZX-10R although he felt the suspension needed a little 'tweak' here and there to get maximum performance "I was happy enough on the McAdoo Superbike tonight - the motor is strong but I need to adjust the suspension settings to get it just how I'd like it. When I came into the pits towards the end of the session I was third fastest which was good because I wasn't pushing at all."
Conrod ended the opening Superbike session in 5th place overall, then went out on the McAdoo Kawasaki ZX-6R Supersport bike. This practice didn't go so well because the session was red flagged after two laps because of an oil spillage at Station corner. Due to the time lost in cleaning the circuit, Conrod was told the Supersport session was just 15 minutes long and that the following Superstock session was cancelled completely. For this reason Conrod felt he couldn't come into the pits and make any adjustments to the Ninja ZX-6R in such a short session. This proved costly as the quickshifter wasn't working and made gear changes very difficult. In the end Conrod ended up only 13th fastest in the Supersport class which doesn't reflect either his own or the pace of the McAdoo Kawasaki ZX-6R.
Overall an up and down evening, particularly the Superstock session cancellation and little problems with the Supersport bike. Hopefully the dry weather will remain for Thursday's daytime practice sessions otherwise the Superstock grid could be a lottery and Conrod will have to start from row 5 for the Supersport race.
