Coxhell delivers first win for CJC – Bisley in tricky conditions
Against the odds, CJC – Bisley Workwear’s Craig Coxhell thrilled the combined V8 Supercars L&H 500 / Insure My Ride Australian Superbike Open crowd by taking his Honda to victory in spectacular fashion. The come from behind win in race 2 at Phillip Island this weekend was the first win for the team and secured an overall 3rd for the weekend and top privateer.
With the field starting on slicks for the 10 lap race, Coxhell made his move mid race after a shower swept across the track, pushing hard from 5th to 1st position in an amazing lap and a half, sliding past his factory backed rivals for a crowd pleasing win in the treacherous conditions.
Craig Coxhell
“I was riding by feel rather than looking at the surface! It was pretty slippery out there we were sliding around everywhere. Everyone slowed down when the rain came, but I just kept my head down and bum up. I’m really happy for the team, we don’t have the resources of some of the other guys and I’m stoked to be able to give our sponsors their first win and repay their faith. Huge thanks to everyone behind us, particularly the folks at Bisley for their ongoing support and encouragement, I hope they enjoy this as much as we did!”
Earlier in the weekend Craig had literally wrestled the bike home to sixth place in the first race after having a rear tyre self-destruct.
“We were struggling chasing a good setup in the dry here this weekend, so the decision was made to try a new and relatively untested tyre. In theory it was worth a shot but as it turned out it had less grip and then threw itself to pieces at about half race distance. Made for some pretty spectacular TV shots I’m told, but it didn’t do what we’d hoped obviously. We’ll need to do some more work down here testing before we’re back for the next ASBK round’
Crew Chief – Rob Coxhell:
“What a race – that makes all the efforts worthwhile! It was pretty humbling to see Craig out there riding like that, we’re just so proud of the team. To cap off the weekend with our first win here was just fantastic. We’ve really enjoyed being amongst the V8s here this weekend, quite a few of the V8 teams are customers of ours at Shepp Motor Bodies and it was nice to show them first hand what we can do on two wheels. From all the feedback we had from the crowd they were really into it – I think both the V8 supporters and superbike supporters like to see the underdog getup and take it to the factory teams, so we made a lot of people happy today.”
AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE OPEN, PHILLIP ISLAND GRAND PRIX CIRCUIT (IN CONJUNCTION WITH V8 SUPERCARS L&H 500)
SUPERBIKE RACE ONE (10 laps)
1 Wayne Maxwell (Vic), Honda 15:44.1230
2 Josh Waters (Vic), Suzuki
3 Shannon Johnson (Vic), Honda
4 Shawn Giles (NSW), Suzuki
5 Glenn Allerton (NSW), Honda
6 Craig Coxhell (Vic), Honda
SUPERBIKE RACE TWO (10 laps)
1 Craig Coxhell (Vic), Honda 16:10.2690
2 Josh Waters (Vic), Suzuki
3 Wayne Maxwell (Vic), Honda
4 Shannon Johnson (Vic), Honda
5 Shawn Giles (NSW), Suzuki
6 Glenn Allerton (NSW), Honda
Overall Points:
1 Wayne Maxwell 45pts;
2 Josh Waters 44;
3 Craig Coxhell 40;
4 Shannon Johnson 38;
5 Shawn Giles 34;
6 Glenn Allerton 31;
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Awesome ride Craig – congrats again from Jimbo and myself.