Despite a practice week heavily disrupted by weather, Stroud's Dan Cooper and the Cornwall-based Centurion Racing Team have declared themselves happy with how their week has gone at the 2013 Isle of Man TT Races and are eagerly looking forward to Sunday's opening race, the Dainese Superbike TT over six laps.
A number of practice sessions during the week were affected by damp weather resulting in most of the sessions being untimed and it wasn't until Thursday evening that the Superbikes were able to take to the famous Mountain Course for the first time. As a result, the schedule was changed to allow riders and their 1000cc machines more practice time, the aforementioned Superbike race subsequently pushed back 24 hours to Sunday.
Nevertheless, Cooper has maximised the dry track time that's been available with Saturday's final practice session seeing him record his best ever Supersport lap around the 37.75-mile course.
The lap of 122.033mph on the Centurion Triumph Daytona 675 placed him in a superb ninth place on the leaderboard prior to Monday and Wednesday's four lap races.
The former 125cc British champion has also been enjoying his first ever time at the TT on a Superbike machine, lapping at 122.548mph on the Centurion Honda Fireblade also on Saturday morning with more 120mph plus laps coming on the Centurion Honda Fireblade Superstock machine, his best lap in the class only a shade lower at 122.302mph.
Team Manager, Paul Rees: "We've all been up against it with a lack of dry track time but we've had a good practice week with no problems and are well chuffed with Dan's performances on all of the bikes.
"He posted his best ever Supersport lap today and whilst he's still learning the Superbike, he's been getting more comfortable and confident each time he goes out on the bike.
"He's consistently been lapping in the 122mph bracket so we're all confident of him improving upon that in the race.
"We're very happy with the performance of the Triumph Daytona whilst his times have been improving all the time on the 1000cc bikes.
"The bikes have all been working well so full credit to the team for all their hard work. The weather has obviously affected the practice sessions, which has been frustrating for everyone, but the organisers have done everything they can to re-adjust the schedule and give everyone as much time on the bikes as possible prior to race week."
As in previous seasons, Centurion Racing will continue to show their support for Help for Heroes, their chosen charity, by displaying H4H logos on the bikes and team attire.
Team Principal Paul Rees, who spent 20 years in Her Majesty's Royal Marine Commandos, was given permission to have the bikes carry the H4H logos in order to encourage the public to be more aware of this charity that supports our Armed Forces, many of whom are making daily sacrifices in Afghanistan.
Centurion Racing would specially like to thank Arai, FTR, GPR Racewear, Dunlop, RichArt, R2 Logo Print & Embroidery, Akrapovic, SW Commercials, 2K Coachworks, Fuchs Silkolene and Daytona for personally supporting Dan, and all our friends and followers.
