The Wilson Racing team set off on the Wednesday night to travel the 826 miles (1,329 kms) from Dronfield to the Sachsenring to take part in the MotoGP event recently.
The Wilson Racing Moto3 team normally race in the Hel Performance Motostar British Championship, but had been invited to take part in the ADAC North Europe Cup which took place at the same time as the MotoGP event. Unfortunately for their disappointed 13-year-old racer Charlie Atkins he was unable to go as the German championship rules have a minimum age of 14, unlike the British championship. So Gary Wilson was only able to take his 15 year-old rider TJ Toms.
The riders in the Europe Cup compete on the same standard Honda NSF250R machines that are used in the UK championship. When they arrived in Germany it was raining but fortunately for all the Moto3 sessions the track conditions were dry.
During Thursday the team spent the time setting up and preparing the bike for the weekend and recovering from their long journey. Later in the evening the German hosts invited the teams to a barbecue and live music.
On Friday Wilson Racing rider TJ Toms set about the important business of learning the 2.3 mile track (3.7km) MotoGP track. Up against 27 riders on a completely new track TJ Toms registered the 14th quickest time.
The second qualifying session was on the Saturday where he improved his lap time ending the session in 10th place on the grid. Unfortunately, on his last flying lap TJ Toms had a spill but luckily he was OK. TJ Toms made a good start and managed to bring his bike across the line in a very creditable tenth place.
TJ Toms, “It was an easy track to learn but really hard to go as fast you would like. It’s really tight and twisty. The whole experience was awesome and it was great to see Danny Kent and Scott Redding again. I’d like to thank Danny for the knee sliders and Scott for the passes he gave us.”
Team owner Gary Wilson, “It was a fantastic experience for all the team and For TJ. I was delighted with a tenth place finish as that was our target before we set-off to Germany.”