Sullivan Mounsey rode two fantastic British Talent Cup races at Brands Hatch last weekend for Barnsley’s Wilson Racing team. He took first place in the first race and narrowly missed second in race two finishing only 0.107 seconds behind Harley McCabe. Teammates Ben Jolliffe and Harrison Mackay also rode great races battling hard for all some important championship points. Harrison crashing out of race one would go on to take 14th place in race 2, and Ben Crossed the line with his best finish of the season in race 1 coming across in 10th position, and would finish race 2 in 12th.
Free Practice.
Free practice 1 would see the Wilson racing riders getting used to the circuit again as Harrison and Sullivan hadn’t ridden on the track since last year, and Ben was yet to ride the track on his Moto 3 machine. Free practice 1 would see Sullivan finishing in 8th, Harrison in 17th and Ben in 14th. With the weather set to stay dry and warm up even more to 19 degrees Celsius the three riders headed out for Free practice 2. All three riders managed to improve off of their FP1 times however only Harrison and Ben would move up the standings with Harrison finishing 13th, Ben in 12th, and Sullivan moving back down to 10th even with a faster time then that morning.
Qualifying
Saturday morning would see the Wilson Racing riders heading out with more dry conditions. Pushing hard and improving from their Friday times Sullivan managed to qualify 8th, Ben 13th and Harrison 16th with only 0.273 seconds separating Ben and Sullivan, and 0.377 separating Harrison and Sullivan. These times would see the riders lining up on the grid in race 1 with the positions they finished in as no amendments were made to the grid.
Race 1
By the time the Wilson Racing riders headed out for race 1 there had been a lot of rain with lots of standing water on the track and no sign of the rain fading any time soon, this would mean it would be declared a wet race. All 3 riders headed out in full wets to the now shortened 12 lap race. After the sighting laps and the warmup laps were done it was time for lights out! Sullivan managed to get an incredible start slotting into second place by turn 1 and by turn 2 managed to take the lead from Evan Belford. He would hold this position until the end with Harley McCabe following closely behind, however Sullivan kept his head and the all-new Smooth Sully came into play and worked wonders to help him lead the race across the line to take his second win of the season.
Following behind in 10th position was Ben who didn’t get the best start, dropping back to 17th at one point. He quickly made-up lots of ground and was riding well in 10th position on his own unable to catch the group In front of him in time for the end of the race, crossing the line with his best finish of the season and his first top 10 in the British Talent Cup. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for Harrison who crashed out of the race on lap 8.
Race 2
Before race 2 on Sunday morning, it was time for warm up, with the conditions still wet but with a drying track the decision was made for only Harrison to go out for warm up to make sure he was happy with how everything was on his bike after his crash, as the weather was set to stay dry for race 2 and there was only just over an hour between warm up and race 2.
Race 2 and the riders lined up on the grid with the amended grid meaning Harrison would start 19th, Ben 13th and Sullivan 5th. Lights out and away they went for another shortened 12 lap race. Sullivan and Harrison got great starts with Ben managing to get a better start then Race 1. Quickly Belford started to pull away leaving Amanuel, Harley and Sullivan battling it out for the last 2 podium positions. As the race progressed Amanuel crashed out on lap 6 after holding the brakes to long around Surtees, leading to Harley and Sullivan battling for 2nd and 3rd. across the line and Sullivan would take home 3rd loosing out on 2nd by only 0.107 seconds. Harrison and Ben would also be pushing away in the pack further back managing to bring their machines across the line in 14th for Harrison and 12th for Ben.
Overall, it was another brilliant weekend for Wilson racing at Brands Hatch with lots of close racing and lots more vital experience gained in preparation for our next round at the British Moto GP in around 10 days’ time. As always, we would like to thank our team sponsors as well as everyone who comes along to support us.