ROUND 6 RACE REPORT: Brands Hatch GP

Overall a great weekend, with my best finish of the year so far. I made great progress throughout the weekend, dropping a second off my time, every session.

Friday was of course a learning experience as I’d never ridden the Brands GP circuit before, though I feel I absorbed it quite quickly.

Qualifying was tough, I knew I had the pace to get onto the front 3 rows but sadly it was hard to get a clear lap in. Even when I left loads of room I still got caught up in a mess of riders, I ended up a disappointing P15.

Saturday Race 1 the rain had come in, proper wet, however due to the track being contaminated by oil from the previous BSB race, though we were all set up with new rain tyres and I was raring to go, the race was cancelled for safety reasons at the last minute and rescheduled for Sunday morning.

Sunday Race 1 was now a bit of a gamble, as it was mostly dry but wet in certain areas under trees, leaving some to have wet front and dry rear tyres, we went for full drys. I was strong in the first few laps and got a belter of a start overtaking 7 riders moving up to 8th, but I struggled to make progress, partly down to gearing, and I dropped places ending my race in P12.

Race 2 having finally been able to put a clear lap in in Race 1 I was starting from P10, fighting for top positions. I remained with the front group, chipping my way through eventually finishing P8 only 0.5sec off the winner. Extremely close racing.

It was also great to meet Bradley Hurrion, Ed Waplington and his dad, all keen photographers with a passion for racing, the images attached courtesy of them – thank you very much for focussing on me. They are awesome shots.

The success of the weekend was marred with the shock BSB announcement that they will not continue with the Hel Performance Junior Supersport class next year. It is extremely disappointing as we have committed to this class, the bike, parts and finances into a 2 year plan and this shock announcement has put us in a very difficult unexpected situation. Compounded by the announcement of the loss of thenext feeder class, the Stock 600 as well. I believe my progress and the teams experience would have allowed me to be a championship contender next year. It is unclear what we are going to do next year at the moment.