Silkolene British 2 Stroke Championship blogs

Round 2 - Cusses Gorsel 12 April 2009
We had a great time at Cusses Gorsel – Again the weather was fantastic, the track beautifully prepared and the organisation spot-on, a really well run and enjoyable day.

This time Tom did qualify for the “A” group, which we were thrilled about.  We know he’s fast enough in race conditions but he just hasn’t learned how to do 1 absolutely flat out lap – all his timed laps were within a second, great consistency but no good for qualifying – something to work on. 

Race 1 was another real eye opener for Tom – he thought it was hectic in the first corner at the last round but that was nothing compared to this. He got a good start and was close to the front going in to the first corner but then all the bumping and barging started, you could almost see him freeze.  He managed to get around the first couple of corners and a couple of big jumps without any incidents and settled into the race but by then he was almost at the back.  He rode well and after a couple of laps was back up to 25th in the race and about 13th in his class (40 starters) and closing slowly on a group of three but after about 15 minutes he was exhausted and fell of the pace. In the last two laps he was passed by 6 riders to finish 31st in the race and 16th in class.

All in all a good race and a fairly good result. We can’t complain too much at his fitness, it’s still only his 6th race and his first 20 minutes + 1 lap race.  He was competitive with lads who are considered to be amongst the best in his age group so we’re quite encouraged. 

Race 2.  Well, he was still not recovered from race 1 “every part of me aches and hurts Dad” he said as he was getting ready.  The plan was to go out and stay out of trouble and try to enjoy it.  It was a pretty uneventful race for Tom, he rode consistently to the end but obviously others were feeling the pace too because he finished 28th in the race and 14th in class. 

Race 3. I had to wake him up to get ready for the race so the plan was just to get around and finish.  He started off very gently, almost cruising but again rode consistently and had better lap times than race 2. The steady approach paid off and he had his best result of the day with 27th in the race and 13th in class. 

All in all we were pleased and came home happy but tired. 

The next round is at Thorsway (near Grimsby) on 26 April.  Now the nights are a little lighter we’re going to try and ride mid week after school and work on doing really hard fast laps and improving stamina so that he can race for a full 20 minutes.