Race report round 9 Donington Park GP
A dramatic weekend at Donington Park GP for round 9 of the Honda BTC brings an end to a successful season for the Wilson Racing team.
The weekend started on Friday morning with both riders heading out for FP1 and refreshing their memory of the track. FP1 was damp leading to hard conditions as some parts of the track started to dry. The session ended with Harrison coming in 18th with a time of 1:51.475 and Sullivan coming in 14th with a time of 1:50.489. The afternoon should have been FP2 but with torrential wind and rain the organisers made the right decision to call off the afternoon sessions.
With the above in mind this meant that the riders would be straight out into qualifying on Saturday morning in yet more damp conditions. Harrison managed to qualify 16th with a time of 1:48.793 and Sullivan qualified 7th with a time of 1:47.914.
By Race 1 on the afternoon of Saturday the weather had dried up and it was to be a dry race. After lining up on the grid the lights went out and both riders got a good start, however Harrison got caught up in a racing incident at turn 1 and crashed out. With Sullivan still in the race he managed to finish 8th with the fastest time of 1:42.942.
Warm up on Sunday morning saw both riders head out in more dry conditions. They both rode well with Sullivan getting a time to place him 3rd and Harrison’s best time to place him 14th. However, disaster struck when Harrison was completing his final flying lap as he got to Craner curves he high sided at the bottom leading to him and his bike crashing out. He was taken to the medical centre patched up and passed fit to ride that afternoon, so in between then and the race the pressure was on to get his bike fixed for that afternoon.
Finally race 2 came and both riders lined up in the grid. Lights went out and the race started. Harrison pushed his hardest but retired after lap 6 due to the pain sustained from his crash in warm up. Sullivan went on to have another good race leading at parts and managing to just miss out on a podium as the race got red flagged on lap 12.
Thank you to everyone who has made the season possible and all our old and new followers. Make sure to keep an eye out for our winter testing updates.
