The Biker Place

Another very exiting race meet at Emra! Last meeting Tom Weeden detonated a piston and finished in a low 12th place because the bike wouldn’t rev above 10,000. And this time things were just as eventful.

The heavens opened on Saturday night and the track was wet for Tom’s timed practice session. After a wet Brands Hatch meet the week before Tom had put in a lot of practice in the wet and this showed in his qualifying time. He put his Honda Rs 125 onto 3rd place on the grid! Beating 21 other bikes. Tom was over the moon with his qualifying session and was determined to convert his good qualifying position into a podium.

He sat in the assembly area, adrenaline pumping through his body. And the marshal at the assembly area signals for the riders to go to the start line. Tom puts it in gear and tries to pull away. But no, the bike doesn’t pull away. Tom tries again to put it in gear but again no drive. Tom is really panicking by now. He looked behind and lying, sprawled on the floor was his chain.

He ran back with the bike and put it back in the awning. Tom was very annoyed for want of a better phrase!

Despite his bad luck in the first race Tom was raring to go for the second. He got to the assembly area, where the marshal gives you your grid position. And he shows Tom a number 24 as his grid number! Obviously this made Tom even angrier as he was expecting a 3rd place sticker to be stuck on his bike. But no he was stuck right at the back of the grid.

This made Tom even more determined to give the front runners (all racers with at least 2 or 3 years of 125 experience on there belt compared to Toms 3 race meets on a 125 experience!) a run for there money. The track was damp in places with a dry line on some of the corners.

He went round on the warm up lap and stopped his bike on the number 24 slot. Eager to get a good start and be up there with the front-runners from the start.

The lights went red. All the 2 stroke engines revving high. And then suddenly the light went off and Tom slipped his clutch and shot past everyone like a bullet. He dodged and weaved through the 125’s like they were standing still. Using his power to weight ratio to his advantage.

He was 10th into the first corner! And went pass two more going into Edwina’s. By then the front pack had left and Tom was quite away back. But he chose to chase them. After the 3rd lap he was with the pack. He went to the front of the pack getting 2 of them on the brakes into Edwina’s again. Despite his lightness Tom was amazing on the brakes. He found himself in 3rd after the 5th lap! David Renz and Ross Humphries had pulled away too far too catch. Tom decided to stay at the same pace and not push too hard and crash.

Then on the second to last lap 4th place Curtis Wright overtook Tom coming out of the top hairpin. This meant as they went down the straight Tom was in 4th as the last lap flag was waved. Tom put his head down and took Curtis on the brakes going into Edwina’s but Curtis took him going through the Esses. But Tom took Curtis going into the hairpin. Tom slipped the clutch out of it and went through the chicane and went over the line in 3rd! Tom was over the moon with the result. Coming from 24th on the grid through to 3rd! Beating many people with much more experience than Tom.

Next round he hopes to go two places better!

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