An amazing experience to ride round 6 of BTC together with MotoGP at Silverstone. The circuit is so iconic and a real boost to ride on the 5.8km track. The longest circuit by far on the calendar and it took a lot of study for the first time there. There was a different schedule than usual and on Friday we had to do 2 free trainings and the qualification all in the afternoon which was demanding. Combined free training sessions resulted in P11. Not too bad as there was so much to learn about the circuit and the top 14 where all inside of 2 seconds. Qualifying ended up with P8, really happy with that as the gap was getting smaller. After the busy Friday, there was only one race on Saturday with no warm up and one race on Sunday, again with no warm up and both races at the end of the day. But there was a lot of media attention and we got to be interviewed on the main stage, answering questions about the BTC and ourselves which was scary but fun! Race one split the group of 30 riders into alot of different groups, with the first 4 riders being able to get good pace from the remaining pack alone. Matts was then in a fighting group of 6 riders for the final top 10 places, ending P7 over the line. Happy with this result, but wanting more for race 2.
Race 2 ended up being the same scenario but getting slipstreamed over the finish by 2 riders pushed Matts back to P10. Overall the weekend was great, the top 10 in the championship got to watch the Moto GP race from the service lane which was fantastic, we got to do the track walk with all the Moto 3,2 and GP riders and of course rack up a pile of new selfies! We moved onto Thruxton immediately after for round 7.
Thruxton was one of the most difficult circuits on the calendar, and hot, so hot! But Matts has already been proving that he likes new circuits and can adapt to them very quickly. After doing the track walk with his coach and mentor Scott Ogden (World championship Moto3 rider) who explained that he would be happy with top 10 here. Matts thought differently and said he wanted top 5. He didn’t disappoint and after Fridays free training sessions he finished in P4. On Saturday in qualifying he was sent out at the wrong time and missed the group, ended riding too many laps alone and finished P11. Very disappointed but he’d been in this position before and getting a good start found himself with 5 other riders for the 4th place battle. Coming around the last bend in the last lap he slip streamed 2 riders in front of him to get 4th. Really happy with this and he set the 3rd fastest time of the race to give him a start position of P3 in race 2. Unfortunately race 2 ended for Matts with 3 laps to go when he tried to pass 2 riders at once, clipped the curb and highsided into the barrier. The race was red flagged and finished as it was more than the required 2/3 gone. So he ended race 2 with a DNF which is the first bad crash of the season. After being taken in the ambulance to the medical centre we found he had a broken bone in his hand and a fracture of his big toe. These things happen and fortunately he has the best in protection from his Arai helmet to Giuseppe leathers. We are extremely grateful for this. Matts has since been to hospital here in Valencia and they have given him the best care and hopefully he will back back on the bike soon. After Thruxton Matts is lying P8 in the championship, which is quite remarkable being as he missed 2 rounds (4 races)
