Wet, wild and windy weekend at Round 3 of the British Talent Cup at Snetterton.

Friday came and the riders all headed out for a dry FP1 with all of the riders looking to refresh their memories of the track as it has been a year since racing here. The session progressed and after only 5 laps Julian’s bike cut out at the end of the back straight. He was unable to get the bike started again and so ended up finishing the session early with a final position of 22nd. A few laps later and Samuel Munson would pull into the pits, he had been declared fit to ride, however was having problems in his shoulder from his crash at Brands Hatch a few weeks before. He thought it best to finish the session and was awarded a final position of 25th. As the session came to a close Harrison finished in 8th, Ben in 18th, and Iwan in 19th. After the first session Samuel decided best to go to physio where he decided between himself and the doctors to declare himself unfit to ride, which would lead to him not competing in any more of the race weekend. The fault on Julian’s bike was found quickly to be electrical and so the decision was taken by the team to replace the full wiring harness on the bike to prevent any more electrical problems. That afternoon it was time for FP2, and now with only 4 riders the team headed out on track. This session much like the last would also be a dry one. All of the riders would finish the session with Harrison finishing 8th, Ben 18th, Julian 17th and Iwan in 20th.

Saturday morning and with rain in the air it was time for qualifying. As the riders headed out on track the rain came down. This rain shower led to 10 individual crashes with Iwan unfortunately going down on lap 1 of the session meaning he hadn’t set a time for race 1. This would mean he would have to start at the back of the grid. fortunately all of the other riders managed to remain on in the tricky conditions. At the end of the session Harrison would qualify 14th, Ben 13th and Julian in 11th.

Race 1

After fixing up Iwans bike and preparing the others for race 1 it was now time to wait. The weather had rolled in at this point and the rain kept on falling heavier and heavier with session after session being cut short or cancelled all together. The option of a quick start procedure was discussed by Gary with officials as with the weather a lot of the starters would fail on the grid due to the rain being so heavy. Eventually the quick start was agreed and we finally got a time to start our race. By this point the rain had subsided significantly however it was still going to be a wet race. As the riders came around to the grid for the quick start it was time to go racing. Lights out and the race began with the riders all getting a good start. Unfortunately bad luck would strike again as on lap 3 of the race Iwan crashed out, then only 1 lap later Ben would also crash out of the race leaving only Harrison and Julian in with a chance of points. The chequered flag was out and Harrison crossed the line in 12th, with Julian crossing in 6th, both riders happy to take away points.

Warm up and race 2.

Sunday morning and it was time to go again for warm up. Luckily for us the weather had held out over night meaning the track was dry for morning warm up. The quick 8 minute session went ahead with Harrison finishing 3rd, Ben 17th, Iwan 22nd and Julian 4th. Lunch time and it was time to go racing once again for the second race of the weekend. The weather had held off again and it was declared a dry race. The riders were ready and as they headed out to the grid for a standard grid procedure the sky started to grow dark. Nevertheless it was time to go. Lights out and the rider all got a great start, but at turn 1 Harrison would get pushed wide after getting caught up in the pack sending him into dead last position. The race continued and as Harrison, Ben and Iwan fought for places, further down the order Julian was in a battle towards the front with Filip. Unfortunately the leading 2 riders managed to pull away so it would be the battle for 3rd between Filip and Julian. As the race continued Harrison managed to make his way back up the order working his way back into the top 10 and still pushing hard, whilst Ben and Iwan attempted to finish in the top 15. On the last lap Harrison was caught up in a racing incident as he crossed the line leading to another rider unfortunately crashing out just before the line and him losing 2 places in the process to cross the line in 8th. Further back Ben was leading another group of around 5 riders in which Iwan was a part of, however on the second to last corner Iwan was pushed wide and forced to sit up leading to him dropping to the back of the group. These events meant Ben finished in 17th and Iwan 21st. Further ahead Julian managed to pull a gap on Filip and rode a smooth and consistent race to be able to finish in 3rd. This bitter sweet podium we managed to achieve as a team we have done for John. We hope to have made him and his family proud this weekend and have proved we have what it takes to help John finish his final season with a top 3 championship finish like he set out to do.

as always after a great weekend we would like to thank all of our team sponsors as without them doing what we love and racing would be a lot more difficult.