Yesterday I was racing at Rye House Speedway
Stadium for the final round of the Grand National Flat Track UK
Championship. It was my first meeting back since my accident back in
June.... It had been 3 months, so I was raring to go, and thankfully
back to 100% fitness!
Practice started out a little wet, but after a few heat races the track became really grippy.
Starting
on the middle row in heat 1 of the Pro 450 class, I made a good start
and went around the outside of the track to the front of the field,
after leading 4 laps, my bike began to splutter off of the turns,
and unfortunately Woolley passed me for the win, but I managed to hold
on for 2nd.
Heat 2, starting from the back row, not the best
of starts, Alan Birtwistle lead the race start to finish, I was on his
tail to the entire race, but just not close enough to pass him, ?I stuck
it on him on turn 3 of the last lap, but it wasn't quite enough -
another 2nd.
Heat 3, made a good start and lead the race start to finish, ahead of Team Suzuki team mate, Pete Boast.
Semi
Final, I had pole position for my semi, I made a good start and lead
start to finish, this left me with 2nd pick on the front row for the
15-lap final!
Final, the track had dried out a lot by this
point, and therefore had lost a lot of grip, passing was made much
harder! I didn't make the best of starts and was 3rd into the first
corner behind Boast and Woolley, after battling with Woolley for 3 laps I
managed to pass him, but was shortly passed by Tom. By lap 10, I
re-passed Aprillia rider Tom, and began chasing down Team Suzuki team
mate, Pete Boast; again, I couldn't get quite close enough to pass him,
and so Boast took the final win of the year, I finished 2nd, Tom 3rd.
I
finished 5th overall in this Championship: Round 1 - 3rd place, Round 2
- 3rd place, Round 3 - 5th place, plus injuries causing me to miss 2
rounds of the championship, Round 6 - 2nd place.
I also raced in the Thunderbike class aboard the Roeder Racing 500 2-stroke machine.
I
won every heat race and the final, pulling a good 5-6 second lead in
each race. I would like to think I would have won this class as I had
won every other race throughout the year, but unfortunately I missed 2
rounds due to injuries.
I am very pleased with
this meetings results, considering it was my first meeting back, and it
was also good to have Team Suzuki on top of the Pro 450 podium.
I
would also like to thank you very much for all the help and support you
have given me throughout this year, I couldn't have done it without
you!
Kind Regards,
Tim
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