MOTORSPORT: Perrin makes a steady start with his new team

Jamie Perrin in action during testing at Silverstone. Picture courtesy of Camipix Photography

After a long winter, Spirit Moto Corsa were finally able to get back on track at the first day of the official British Superbike Silverstone test.

New signing and Kettering racer Jamie Perrin made his debut on the Spirit SP2 while Mason Law climbed back onboard as he began his British GP2 title defence.

The riders tackled the national layout of the circuit, with the day consisting of four 30-minute sessions that were mostly in bitterly cold conditions.

Heavy overnight rain meant that the first session of the day at 9am was a quiet one, as the track was still sodden. Law completed just four laps, while Perrin didn’t venture out on track.

By the time the second session got underway conditions had significantly improved. This meant both riders were able to head out on slick tyres.

Law was third fastest in GP2 with a lap time of 58.171 seconds. Meanwhile, Perrin got his first experience on his new bike and placed a respectable seventh, setting a 58.933.

Following lunch, it was straight back out on track for the third session of the day.

Perrin was soon able to prove that he was making hasty progress, improving on his previous best lap by half a second to set a 58.478.

This was enough to place him sixth in the GP2 classification directly behind Law, who improved marginally on his personal best by putting in a 58.083.

After returning to the garage at the midway point of the session, a red flag with seven minutes remaining prevented the riders from going out for a second stint.

A suspension issue unfortunately then delayed the start of Perrin’s final session by 15 minutes, meaning he could only complete a further eight laps.

Law, on the other hand, enjoyed a fruitful end to the day where he was able to make improvements to his bike’s setup and set his best time of the day, a 57.692.

In the combined classification for the day, Mason was third fastest in GP2 while Perrin placed seventh.

The day’s pacesetter in the class was Dan Jones (iForce Lloyd & Jones PR Racing).

The Welshman showed some impressive speed, setting a best lap of 56.831, clearly making good use of the older-specification Spirit that he will be using this season.