ThundersportGB GP2 Championship Leader

The Bank Holiday weekend saw us take the first of our two visits to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. As this is our closest circuit it can be classed as our home round, the positive side of this is that we have a good following that come down to watch the races; the downside is that this tends to add a little more pressure to get a good result. We were still running our 400cc engine for this weekend as time had run a little short in trying to get the 440cc motor built. Hopefully this will be resolved by the next round, eh Roger?

Tony Young from Motorcycle Machining had popped down to watch for the first time this season so we were also keen to impress on that front. Got to keep those sponsors happy you know. Tony did chose a burger from one of the stands over our very well prepared buffet, so I am not sure if our hospitality unit is quite up to spec yet! With us not riding the Supermono at Cadwell this did give us the chance to concentrate on the GP2 races and this was a big help.

First qualifying was held in very wet conditions on Saturday afternoon, as this was my first outing of the weekend I took a steady approach but was still pleased to find myself 3rd quickest by the end of the session.

Second qualifying was a different affair and with a drying track I got my head down to put in some good times. Throughout this session I saw P1 on my pit board and was pleased to hear I had qualified in pole position by a massive 2.3s from 2nd place man Alan Percival on a similarly mounted machine. My main championship rivals Alex Heaton and Will Hodgson were further down the grid in 6th and 13th respectively.

Our first race of the day came and the weather was not being kind, a short shower prior to the race being called ensured all of us had scrambled to get wet tyres fitted. When we collected on the start line the track was actually half dry and half wet making for very difficult racing conditions. After a poor start I picked my way through the field and it came down to a battle between me and Will Hodgson on his Aprilia as we had pulled clear of the chasing pack. On lap 6 I had a slight altercation with a backmarker, locking handlebars and this lost me a couple of seconds to Will. There were still a few laps left to catch back up with Will but then the red flags were shown to stop the race due to a crashed rider and the result declared. 2nd position was not too bad a start to the weekend.

The second race of the day was once again hampered by the weather with everyone having to take a gamble on what tyres they should fit. We opted for a cut slick front tyre and a full slick rear tyre. As we headed out on the warm up lap I was confident we had made the correct choice as the track had a dry line all the way around. You can imagine my disappointment when we line up on the grid for the start and the heavens opened once more dumping a load of water onto the track. The lights went out and as you can imagine I was a little tentative for the first few laps as the slicks were not gripping at all on the damp track. By half race distance a dry line had appeared and I started to up my pace. With every lap we were getting quicker and passing riders who were out on wet tyres. It was a little too late though as I could only manage to get up to 4th place before the chequered flag came out. This was still a good result for the conditions.

Monday arrived and this time we were blessed with glorious sunshine, something that we have not seen too much of so far this year. After my performance in dry conditions in qualifying I was determined to get a good result. The race started and I found myself down in around 12th position into the first corner, but by the end of the first lap I had put in some very hard moves to pass 7 riders and cross the line in 4th place, that was a stonking 1st lap and I will apologise now if some of the overtaking manoeuvres were ‘a little close’! I got my head down and by the end of lap 3 had taken the lead. For the rest of the race I didn’t see anyone else but I know someone was close behind as each time I completed a lap my pit board told me I had +0s on the guy behind. It was only on the last lap when braking for the hairpin that I realised it was young Alex Heaton as he came flying past me sideways, totally missing the corner, ah the exuberance of youth. After a little chuckle to myself I turn the bike in and around the hairpin crossing the finish line to take the win by 2s. A good result and some very good lap times to boot.

We lined up on the grid for our last race of the weekend and after the win earlier in the day were confident of a repeat performance. As the lights went out we went backwards off the line and found myself in 7th place, I managed to pass five riders over the next two laps and was looking to take the lead from Alan Percival when the red flags came out due to a crashed rider. Oh well, we would just have to do it all over again. We had a bit of a panic for the restart when the bike would not fire, I must thank my dad and several others including Alan Knight the owner of the bike ridden by our main championship rival Alex Heaton who gave all their effort to push start the bike, eventually the motor sprang into life and I chased out of pit lane to catch the rest up on the warm up lap. The restart was to be run over a shortened distance and I actually got off the line pretty well and slotted in to 4th place by the first corner. Unfortunately as I headed down Park Straight I knew something was wrong with the bike as the clutch started to slip very badly. At this point I was very concerned that the bike would not make it to the end of the race. I had to adapt my riding to the slipping clutch and was riding around the corners in a gear higher in an effort to keep the revs down and to actually get some drive. We did make it to the chequered flag and managed to claim 5th place and not too far down on 3rd and 4th place, a good result for an ailing bike. Two starts in quick succession had obviously been too much for the clutch.

I had to do an interview for MotorsTV for being the winner of the first race of the day; the funny thing was, due to the logistics of Cadwell, with the start line at the bottom of the hill and the podium at the top, Steve Day the commentator could not be in two places at once. Therefore I had to do the interview for the first race straight after the second race, not confusing at all that is it? Therefore if I don’t quite come across as being totally on the ball this is the best excuse I have!

We left Cadwell leading the ThundersportGB GP2 Championship by 5 points from Alex Heaton in 2nd place, there is still a long way to go but at least we are in the mix.

Please remember that Monday’s races will be shown on Motors TV in the coming week so check the viewing times soon.

Our next outing is at the MotoGP at Silverstone on the 19th/20th June riding Sean Kelly’s Honda RS250 in a support race. This is something to look forward too as we get to ride the new GP circuit at Silverstone and it is always good fun to be riding at Britain’s premier motorcycling event. It will be a bit of an uphill struggle as we won’t have much time to learn the circuit and I have not ridden the 250 yet this year but we will see how it goes.