Wow, what a weekend. It was the first round of the NORA92 British Cup at Landrake Moto Parc and the weekend didn’t fail to excite anyone. Overall I came away with 6th position, however that didn’t reflect my riding one bit.
After a bad qualifying, finishing P9, I knew I had to get good starts in all 4 races. In race 1 I didn’t get a great jump of the start but made up for it in the first corner gaining a few positions back. After lap 1 I was in 6th place and decided not to push too hard as I wasn’t gelling with the track. After a few laps and a few passes I made my way into 3rd finishing there.
In race two I had a good start and after lap 1 I found myself in 3rd battling with 2nd however sadly the race got red flagged so we had to restart the race. On the restart I had a bad jump over the gate and found myself quite far back in the pack. I made my way through eventually getting to 4th position on a track with conditions I wasn’t enjoying.
After not a great first day I knew Monday was a knew day with a fresh start.
In the first race my start was better but I was stuck behind 3rd place for a few laps knowing I had more pace than him. I found a place to overtake and some dodgy defending from him caused him to find himself on the ground. I felt good trying to stay consistent but disaster struck right before the last lap. My chain fell off in a deep rut, with me thinking it was an engine problem I started pushing my bike towards the line I noticed it was off. Me and a track marshal got it back on so I managed to finish but unfortunately in 32nd position and not 3rd.
Race 4, the last race of the weekend. I knew I had nothing to lose so I was leaving everything on the track. My best start of the weekend and I was in the lead. Charlie Mitchell who had won all 3 previous races was right behind me and wanted the win as bad as I did. I made a mistake and he took the lead straight from me but now I was put front I wasn’t settling for anything over than 1st so I made a dive bomb move retaking the lead as quick as it was taken from me. A few corners later I couldn’t hear his bike behind mine and realised he had crashed, but a costly mistake found me on the ground straight after and my lead was taken from me. However luck was on my side and the new leader, Jamie Currie, crashed in the next corner just after he had taken the lead. I then calmly led the race for a few laps, but it wasn’t going to be easy as Charlie was catching back up and was quickly on my tail. The last three laps were none stop defence from me and full-on attack by Charlie. Luckily I was holding on and with a few corners left a lapper got caught up with Charlie so I took my first ever win at a NORA92 British Cup race and got the team their first ever win which I was even more happy about. Overall many positives to the weekend with a decent Sunday and a great way to end Monday, Landrake was a success.
