Wilson Racing finish the season with solid points at Donington

Wilson Racing finish the season with solid points at Donington

Barnsley’s Wilson Racing ended the British Talent Cup season at Donington Park this weekend with a 7th place finish and DNF for James Cook, a 16th and 13th for Luca Hopkins and for Ryan Hitchcock who had been out injured since Thruxton at the end of July a 22nd and 14th place finish. Free Practice and Qualifying There was a wet start to the weekend at Donington Park. The first free practice session was a damp affair. Late on in the session rain began to fall. James Cook finished 21st quickest, Luca Hopkins was 23rd and Ryan Hitchcock 34th as the Wilson Racing team felt their way around the track. The second free practice session was dry and the youngsters were able to significantly improve their lap times and confidence. James Cook posted the fourth fastest lap time with Ryan Hitchcock finishing 21st. Luca Hopkins was 24th. From Friday’s free practice the British Talent Cup riders started Saturday morning early with their qualifying...
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Top ten finish at Silverstone

Top ten finish at Silverstone

James Cook crashed out in race one at Luffield having just taken the lead before finishing tenth in race two. Luca Hopkins came across the line in 14th in the first race and then went on to pick up another championship point for fifteenth in the second race. Cook is 7th in the championship standings on 135 points and rookie Hopkins is in 21st place with 21 points. Free Practice and Qualifying FP1 was wet and with the forecast suggested the rest of the weekend would be dry the Wilson Racing riders decided to stay in the garage for the first 30-minute session. In FP2 Hopkins and Cook were keen to get some track time but just three laps into the session the rain began to fall again proving that the British weather is unpredictable as ever. The track was also wet for qualifying and with little track time the number 34 of Cook and the 41 of Hopkins did well to post...
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Successful Snetterton

Successful Snetterton

Wilson Racing came away from Snetterton with three points-scoring finishes. Cook bounced back from the two DNFs at Silverstone with a sixth and fifth position finishes. Luca Hopkins ended his first race in the pits after a racing incident but returned to the points finishing 14th in race two. Free Practice Team owner, Gary Wilson, spent most of the week between Silverstone and Snetterton rebuilding James Cook’s bike that took serious damage after he was knocked off by another rider in the last round. In fact, the team were still at work on the Moto3 machine on Thursday evening. When Friday free practice one got underway Cook managed 14th in FP1 and improved to finish 10th in FP2 as he regained some of his confidence with his Honda NSF 250. Luca Hopkins was looking forward to his weekend at Snetterton. It was the first time the rookie had raced at a track he had ridden before, as the British Talent Cup riders had...
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Hopkins in the points as luck abandons Cook at Silverstone

Hopkins in the points as luck abandons Cook at Silverstone

Wilson Racing rookie, Luca Hopkins made a positive finish to the British Talent Cup MotoGP weekend at Silverstone with a 13th place in race two. James Cook showed podium pace throughout the two races but failed to finish both after being brought down but through no fault of his own. Free Practice and Qualifying The number 43 of James Cook put together a solid start to the weekend after qualifying in tenth position on Friday afternoon. Luca Hopkins also made fine progress on day one. Having been 29th at the end of free practice one he went on to end the day qualifying seven places higher in 22nd. Race One The British Talent Cup riders had to wait until 16:30 for their next track action on the Saturday. With huge anticipation the thirty plus riders lined up on the grid at the long 5.9 kilometre Silverstone circuit. Lights out and the longest laps of the BTC calendar began. Cook was quickly up from tenth to...
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Double podium at Donington National

Double podium at Donington National

The was double podium delight as James Cook took two 3rd place finishes from the three races at Donington Park National Circuit in the British Talent Cup. A DNF in race three was the only small blot on the copybook from an otherwise outstanding performance. Rookie Luca Hopkins narrowly missed out on adding to his championship points tally with two 16th and a 17th place finish. Free practice Wilson Racing was reduced to two team members this round as the unfortunate Ryan Hitchcock had not recovered sufficiently from a broken left wrist suffered at the last round at Thruxton. James Cook was quickly up to speed in the two free practice sessions on Friday. He was inside the top five during free practice one before reducing his lap time by a further half-a-second in free practice two to finish the day third fastest overall. The number 41 of Luca Hopkins had an eventful Friday. In the first free practice he suffered a small crash...
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Top five at Thruxton

Top five at Thruxton

The British weather had a profound effect on the British Talent Cup event and Barnsley’s Wilson Racing at Thruxton this weekend. James Cook recovered well from a difficult start to finish race one in a commendable fifth position. Rookie teammate Luca Hopkins crossed the finish line in 14th whilst Ryan Hitchcock was unable to compete after crashing in free practice when strong winds caused him to fall and break his left wrist. Race two was cancelled after heavy rainfall. James Cook now has 76 points and is 4th overall in the British Talent Cup. Ryan Hitchcock is 10th on 44 points and Luca Hopkins is 19th with 13. Free practice Free practice proved to be a challenging time for the Wilson racing team. With strong winds and mixed weather on Friday, two of the three-team members suffered crashes on the opening day. James Cook was 2nd quickest in the opening free practice session with Ryan Hitchcock 11th and Luca Hopkins 27th as the three...
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Double podium at Brands Hatch

Double podium at Brands Hatch

James Cook rode two fantastic British Talent Cup Moto3 races at Brands Hatch last weekend for Barnsley’s Wilson Racing. The 13-year-old took third place in the first race and narrowly missed the win in race two finishing just 0.061 seconds behind the winner. Teammate Ryan Hitchcock took a fantastic fourth and fifth-place finish whilst rookie Luca Hopkins collected another championship point for 15th in race two after a 17th position in the first outing. Free practice The weekend could not have got off to a much better start for Wilson Racing. In Free practice, one Ryan Hitchcock registered a lap time of 1:38.508 that put him at the top of the timesheet with James Cook just behind in second. If FP2 the roles were reversed with Cook leading from Hitchcock as the Wilson Racing boys had the other riders taking note. Rookie teammate Luca Hopkins was learning the famous Brands Hatch GP circuit and finished the day inside the top 20. Qualifying After the dry...
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Wilson racing close to a podium finish at Knockhill

Wilson racing close to a podium finish at Knockhill

Barnsley based Wilson Racing British Talent Cup Moto3 team saw all three of its riders score points at round two at Knockhill. James Cook (13) just missed the podium by under half a second in race two finishing fourth. Hitchcock (13) came back from a crash in race one to take 9th in the second outing and rookie Hopkins (13) scored points in both encounters. The short 1.3-mile circuit was missed off the calendar last year in the abridged pandemic affected season so it was a new track for all three riders. Free practice On Saturday thirty British Talent Cup riders had two 30-minute free practice sessions. There was a red flag early in FP1 after one rider fell and his bike was stranded on the straight coming out of Clarke corner. James Cook was 16th at the time, Hitchcock 10th and Hopkins 19th. It didn’t take long for the race marshals to get the track clear and the session was underway again. As...
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Points all round at eventful Oulton round

Points all round at eventful Oulton round

Wilson Racing had a successful start to the 2021 British Talent Cup championship with a fourth place in race one and all three riders scoring points at Oulton Park last weekend. We have had to wait since mid-October 2020 for the new British Talent Cup season to begin but it proved very eventful for the Barnsley based team. This season the three riders competing in the standard Moto3 category of the British Superbike Championship series are James Cook, Ryan Hitchcock and rookie Luca Hopkins. Free practice The event got underway on Friday when around thirty riders competed in two free practice sessions in mixed conditions. In FP1 the riders faced a damp by drying track. James Cook showed his pre-season form when he set the third fastest time. Ryan Hitchcock was just a tenth outside the top ten in 13th position whilst Luca Hopkins spent the time learning the circuit for the first time finishing 24th. The track conditions deteriorated for FP2. James Cook excelled...
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Successful first official BSB test completed at Silverstone

Successful first official BSB test completed at Silverstone

All three of the teams riders were at Silverstone today for the one day opening pre-season test of the season. James Cook managed to end the day in 3rd position overall with a best lap time of 1:02.728 coming in the final session of the day. Ryan Hitchcock clocked a 1:03.024 on the National circuit which placed him fourth overall at the close of play. Rookie Luca Hopkins also impressed. The number 41 slashed almost three seconds off his lap time over the course of the day. Hopkins rounded out the day confidently inside the top ten. ...
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