A warm weekend followed by 2 exciting races led to Harrison and Ben walking away from the weekend with more points to their names, whilst Iwan had 2 disappointing DNF’s, and our wildcard Greg gained more valuable experience of the Moto 3 machine and managed to finish just outside of the points after some brilliant racing battles were had by him.
Friday morning and it was time for FP1, the weather wasn’t as had been predicted and wasn’t as warm as we had all hoped for, but the riders all headed out on the 2.3560-mile circuit to begin their weekend! As the session progressed on all of the riders began to show significant improvements with Harrison and Ben quickly climbing the timing sheets. As the session came to a close Harrison crossed the line with a best time that would place him 7th, Ben finished in 11th, Iwan in 25th and Greg following not to far behind in 27th. A few hours later and with the weather starting to warm up it was time to head out for FP2. As the riders headed out on circuit there was high hopes that they would do well considering the earlier results, however after only 4 laps Ben pulled into the pits with an electrical problem. Unable to find a quick fix in pitlane he headed back to the awning with Gary to try to find a solution before the end of the session. Back on track and Harrison was proving he had what it took to run up the front and began climbing the time sheets again, with Greg and Iwan also improving from their earlier times. By the end of the session Ben still wasn’t able to get back out which led to him finishing in 27th, Harrison finished in 6th, Iwan in 23rd and Greg in 26th.
Saturday morning and with Bens electrical problem solved overnight it was time for qualifying. The riders headed out to gain their best possible times to be in with a chance of a good starting grid position. The weather still wasn’t as warm as had been anticipated but that wouldn’t prove to slow the riders down. With Harrison having a great qualifying but struggling in places he would end up finishing in 8th, whilst Ben being a session behind everyone else managed to find the pace to qualify 16th, Iwan qualified 25th, and Greg 26th. But before the race began Harley McCabe would pull out due to injuries sustained at Moto GP, which would move Ben up to 15th, Iwan to 24th, and Greg up to 25th. This move up the grid would help the riders to get into some great battles in the race.
Race 1
That afternoon and it would be time to go lights out for race 1 of that weekend. As the riders prepared to go the lights went out and off they went, with all of them getting a good start and Harrison initially getting away with the leading group of 9. Further back and Ben managed to get into the group of riders all battling for a point finishing place. Greg got a great few opening laps getting up to 20th by lap 2 and Iwan was struggling initially dropping back through the last group. By lap 5 Iwan was working his way back up the pack, unfortunately an ambitious move by him when he aimed to pass 2 riders up the inside led to him loosing the front and unfortunately wiping himself and Josh Bannister out of the race. Further up and Ben was still fighting hard for his chance to walk away with a point from the race, but he kept dropping to the back of the group then working his way back through. The last lap and by this point Harrison was in a battle with Ronnie Harris to see who could cross the line first after loosing the tow of the leading group early on, it was a drag to the line out of the final chicane but unfortunate it wouldn’t go the way of Harrison as Ronnie would just pip him to the line meaning he would finish in 7th. Further back and Ben looked set to finish strong in 15th after dropping off of the group slightly on the final lap. Further back and Greg managed an impressive 21st for his first race of the season.
Warm up and Race 2.
After all of the excitement in race 1 it was time to go again Sunday morning for warm up after a lay in due to not starting until later. Warm up went well with the riders preparing themselves for the race ahead and checking that everything felt good on the bikes. Harrison finished in 14th, Ben in 18th, Iwan 19th and Greg 23rd.
Time for race 2 and the riders took their spots on the grid, with Harrison lining up 8th, Ben 14th, Iwan 25th, and Greg 20th it was time to go for the second and final race of the weekend. With the weather hotting up and track temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius it would turn out to be a hot and fiery race. All of the riders got another good clean start. Harrison managed to stick to the leading group for a few laps of the race, however by lap 9 him and Ronnie Harris had once again dropped off of the leading group meaning they would be out of podium contention once again. Further back and Ben was in a points scoring group, whilst Iwan was back in 20th after gaining 5 positions from the start, and Greg was in 21st. Misfortune would strike Iwan again though on lap 11 of the race as Bill Harris came together with him coming out of the final chicane taking himself and Iwan out of the race and also bringing out a red flag. With the results being called at the red flag this would mean Harrison finished in 7th, Ben in 15th scoring more points and a very impressive 18th!
Overall, it was another very productive weekend with lots learnt and points scored. It was unfortunate for Iwan crashing out of both races, but we are please to say he is recovering and doing better with only deep tissue bruising. And also, an amazing ride from Greg who was close to scoring points in both races against the other seasoned riders. Another big thanks to our team sponsors once again.