An exhilarating weekend of action-packed racing was had last weekend as the Wilson Racing team headed to Moto GP to race along side the biggest stars in the world on Silverstone’s 3.666-mile circuit. With lots of thrills had by all it was surly a weekend that won’t be forgotten any time soon by all involved.
The weekend started out on Friday with a slight change to our normal running schedule, with Friday set to host FP1, FP2 and qualifying, it would be a busy day for the whole team! FP1 came around with all of the riders feeling confident after their track walk the night before with the team rider coach Ian. For Samuel Munson it would be his first ever time on the full GP circuit which would mean that this session was a learning one and he was going to focus on learning the track. As the session commenced Harrison headed out strong quickly topping the speed charts as well as working his way up to first! The other riders were working on learning the circuit and building up gradually. As the session drew to an end Harrison managed to cross the line in 2nd, Ben in 24th, Samuel 25th and Iwan 21st. A great opening session for Harrison and also a good start by the other riders.
Later that evening and it was time for FP2. As the riders headed out, they would all be looking to improve on the morning’s session. However, they were also aware of the small 1-hour window between FP2 and qualifying and all felt they would be best to push on harder in qualifying in only an hours’ time. FP2 finished with all of the riders managing to complete the session with improved times from FP1, except Harrison who was saving his all for qualifying. As the time between sessions was so small the bikes were to remain down pitlane during this time, which meant refuelling had to be carried out by carrying the tanks back to the awning and refuelling there as there is no refuelling allowed down pitlane.
With new slicks in and full tanks it was finally time for qualifying. As the riders set off for their session their goals were to improve from the previous 2 sessions of the day and set the best times possible to allow them to gain a good starting place for race 1. As the session progressed Harrison would be sat comfortably in the top 3, with the other riders slowly making progression up the timing sheets. On the final few laps, it looked as if Harrison had a top 3 in the bag, however he was riding around alone with no one else near him, whilst his rivals were all using each other to keep improving their times. This led to Harrison being knocked off of the front row and finishing qualifying in 6th, Ben finished in 17th, Samuel in 23rd and Iwan in 20th.
Race 1
After a long hot Friday, it was finally time to head out for race 1 of the weekend with this taking place on Saturday at 16:10. With the riders completing their 2 sighting laps this only left a very short amount of time on the grid. It was a very short time on the grid after the 2 laps and then the lights were out, and the race got underway. All of the riders got of to a great start with all of them quickly finding groups of riders to battle against. Harrison was running up front in the leading pack and managed to get a sniff of the lead on multiple occasions. Further back and Ben and Iwan were also in a group of around 5 riders all aiming for a best finish possible however this finish would be just outside of the points. As Harrison and the leading group continued throughout the race it was all swapping and changing right up until the last lap with Harrison getting pushed down to 5th on the final lap after being in contention of a 3rd for the majority of the race. Ben managed to finish in 19th, Iwan in 23rd and Samuel followed up in 24th.
Race 2
After all of the excitement of race 1 on Saturday evening it would be time to go again for race 2 at 8:45 on Sunday morning. With the grid being determined from race 1 fastest lap times Harrison would be starting 8th, Ben 22nd, Samuel 25th and Iwan 24th. An early morning for the team and it was once again time to line up on the grid. As the riders came round after completing their 2 sighting laps it became clear Ben had a problem. As he took his grid position it became apparent that he had lost his right knee slider whilst on the sighting laps. The decision was made for him to race, and his left slider was moved to the right as there is more right turns then lefts. As quickly as they lined up it was lights out once again for the last race of the weekend for the British Talent Cup at Moto GP! All of the riders started strong again with Harrison breaking away with the leading group. Further back and Ben, Iwan and Sam were also in a group competing for points. As the race progressed Samuel dropped back from the group and allowed them to pull away slightly from him which meant he lost the tow from the group and struggled throughout the race to claw time back on them. Back at the front and Harrison was Battling for a podium finish once again. However, it wasn’t meant to be this weekend. With the final being Harrison crossing the line in 8th, whilst further back Ben had managed to make it up to 15th, and looked set to walk away with a point, until the last corner when the pack managed to run underneath him causing him to finish 19th. Iwan managed a great ride but was unable to claw in that point at the line as he crossed in 16th, whilst Samuel finished behind the group in 21st.
Overall, it was another great weekend with lots of brilliant riding. We would like to thank all of our sponsors once again and we will be going again in 3 days’ time at Thruxton!