NG Road Racing Club Brands Hatch 12/13th April - Tom Weeden
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Tom Weeden, the 14 year old Maidstone rider was racing at his home track, Brands Hatch this weekend. Tom doesn’t usually race with the NG club but he needed practice at his home track. He had only ridden there once before, on his Jawa Gp 70, in the Acu Motostars. Tom didn’t have his normal 3 hour + journey, but only had 20minutes to travel.
On Saturday morning practice went well and he put in some quick laps as he got to grips with the track .
He was 7th on the grid for the first qualifying race and didn’t go that fast in difficult damp conditions. As a dry line started to form though he started to speed up, but couldn’t catch the main pack. He finished in 19th place out of 34. He was 12th in his class (refined recruitment 125) running alongside the 400 street stocks.
That result meant Tom was 19th on the grid. But he got off to a good start on a track which was drying up and had a small dry line. Tom rode well and moved up the pack one by one. He crossed the line in 9th overall finishing 8th in his class.
After the 125 race Tom had a break of one race and then went back out for the open 400 race.
The track was totally dry now and he got off to an ok start. The 400’s though had much more power and pulled away off the line.
He caught them up on the brakes and going through the corners but they pulled away down the straight. Despite this he managed to get 7th out of 12 beating 4 250’s and another 125.
In the morning practice on Sunday Tom was going very well in dry, sunny conditions. He was 6th fastest out of 41 and said he wasn’t even trying that hard.
Tom was looking forward to a dry race when low n and behold it rained so wets back on Tom went out for the first race and got off to a pretty good start but played safe and took it easy.He crossed the line in 10th out of 32 finishers, 9th in his class. But he almost had 7th in his class, He overtook Ant Mulrine and Freddie Nickless into the last corner but as he tried to overtake a back marker up the inside, the back marker cut him up allowing the other two 125’s to re-overtake Tom never mind that’s racing.
The heavens opened soon after and the track stayed wet for the duration of Tom’s 2nd race.
He got off to a good start and was really enjoying the wet conditions. Normally Tom dislikes the wet but he felt really good about this race. He started quite far back but picked off each rider one by one. He even bashed fairings with one of the 400’s going around the outside of him! He ended up finishing 7th out of 31. 6th in his class. Tom was really pleased with this finish.
After that race he went back out again with the 400 street stocks.
He was feeling good after the 125 race and got off to a very good start. He was up with the front pack but as soon as they got to the straights they pulled away. He was riding at a very fast pace and his lap times in the wet were only 4 seconds slower than his dry times. He finished in 7th place out of 10. So out of 6 races the wets beat the slicks 5 to 1 lets hope the weather improves before the wets wear out !
Tom learnt a lot from this meet and is looking forward to the second round of EMRA at Mallory Park next Sunday.
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