Coming back from injury and never having ridden at Donnington, it was going to be a difficult weekend in the last race of the season with BTC.
Fridays free training started badly with technical issues on the bike already before FP1. He managed to get out on track for 8 laps on wet tyres which was only enough time to work out that there was a clutch problem and the gearing wasnt correct. The forecasted rain and storm then arrived, causing the cancellation of the rest of the day meaning no FP2.
Saturday was straight into qualifying on wet tyres, which didnt go too badly and he qualified in P13, although not having ridden at all on a dry track (slick tyres) meant that for the dry race in the afternoon it was going to be difficult. He was very disappointed and ended P20 in race 1. From his race times he would start race 2 from P17.
After working with the team and data guys for 2 hours on Saturday night, he was hopeful to get a better race on Sunday as he had a better understanding of his braking markers and lines in the dry.
He had a very good start in race 2 and by the end of lap 1 had made up 8 places to P9. He had got up to the leading group and was setting lap times of 1.4 seconds faster than the day before. The gap behind him was more than 4 seconds.
The safety car came out after a bad crash which bunched them all back up again and when the safety car came in it was an 8 lap race to finish. After 1 lap he started to loose power and he realised there was technical issues again with the bike. He had to pull into the pits where the engine seized. He was really disappointed but at the same time happy that he had had the pace again to run with the lead group.
These things happen and its unfortunate that it was the last race with BTC for this season.
Even with missing 6 races (3 events) , 1 crash and 1 DNF he ended 10th in the championship which is a great result for being a Rookie.
Hes really excited already for the 2023 season and we would like to thank everyone that has supported him this year. Microlise Cresswell and Parry Hill; thankyou.
Stirlings racing team/ Stirling Oil.
ARAI. EU
Hoffmann Groep
Hendriks sport horses
Stal Johan Heins
Marc Boes
Jurg Elend
Gubbels Autobedrijf
Retro personeeldiensten
Moto wrap
