A stunning weekend by the Barnsley based Wilson Racing as they completed round 8 of the 9-round series at Oulton Park this past weekend. With lots of positives and points scored it turned out to be a great weekend for all. Sullivan bringing it back with a 1st in race one followed by a 2nd in race 2 coming only 0.006 seconds behind race winner Amanuel. Harrison managed to gain himself more points this weekend finishing race 1 in 7th and race 2 in 8th. Ben pushed hard this weekend however had an unfortunate DNF in race 1 followed by an 18th in race 2. Finally, the Wilson Racing wildcard for the weekend Greg managed a 23rd place finish in the first race followed by a respectable 26th in race 2.
Free practice and Qualifying.
Friday and the Wilson riders headed out for their first 2 sessions of the weekend, with it being a while since all riders had ridden their Honda NSF250r machines around the circuit the first session of the day would be a re-familiarization session. As for Greg it would be his first time ever riding on a NSF250r so he would set out with the aim of learning the bike and becoming comfortable with it around the 2.6920-mile circuit. At the end of the session Harrison finished 8th, Ben in 22nd, Sullivan in 3rd, and Greg in 31st. After talking the session over with the team, it was time to head out for FP2. The session got underway and the riders headed out, with Greg still learning the bike he would manage to cross over in 30th, Harrison in 12th, Ben in 29th, and Sullivan in 3rd.
Saturday morning and the riders prepared themselves for qualifying. Ready to go they headed out! The riders were pushing hard all session to keep their times coming down with the weather on their side they continued on until the chequered flag came out, and with this Harrison finished 9th, Ben in 24th, Greg in 31st, and Sullivan managed to push across the line on the second to last lap to bring hope a pole position setting time of 1:47.227!
Race 1.
Saturday afternoon and it was time for race 1. Lining up on the grid no one was to know what an eventful race it would be. Lights out and away they went with Sullivan leading down into i1 he got a great start battling with Belford. Further back Harrison, Ben and Greg all got off to a brilliant start as well battling their way through to gain as many places as possible. As the race progressed on Harrison was lucky to avoid the ghost bike of Ryan Frost when he took a tumble coming out of Cascades and his bike grew a mind of its own continuing down the straight until veering back across the track to hit the barrier just in front of Harrison, bringing out the safety car on lap 6 of 12. With the safety car out and Sullivan leading it would be up to him to back the riders up and head off as soon as it re-entered the pits. Doing a great job with this he set off great and lead the race right up to the end of the race winning by 0.022 seconds. Harrison followed next coming back in 7th, and Greg in 23rd. Unfortunately for Ben he retired on lap 10 due to a technical.
Race 2.
Sunday afternoon and it was time for race 2. With the riders lining up on the grid, Sullivan 4th, Harrison 6th, Ben 20th, and Greg 31st, it was time to race! After a great start from all of the riders Harrison battling for a position in the second group, Sullivan up front trying to claim another podium finish, Ben further down looking for a top 20 position and Greg at the back looking to finish with a good time, it would be a great race. As the race continued the riders all battled hard to get good finishing positions with Sullivan getting beaten to the line by 0.006 seconds by Amanuel it was to be a second-place finish for him, Harrison managed to finish in 8th, Ben in 18th, and Greg in 26th, with all riders achieving their best lap times of the weekend in this second race.
Another great weekend was had by all with lots more progress made for all of the riders especially for our wildcard Greg who showed some great persistence this weekend. As always, a big thanks goes to our team sponsors for helping us out and allowing us to help bring on the next generation of world class riders.