The Biker Place

After a 4-hour trip Tom arrived at the Welsh track, Pembrey on Thursday night. Tom had been to Pembrey before,but on a Jawa 70.

On Friday Test day Tom went out to learn the track and improved on his times every session, but didn’t really like the track that much for some unknown reason hoping to improve in qualifying . But at least it had stayed dry.

On Saturday he didn’t qualify as well as he had hoped, ending up 7th on the grid after the 2nd qualifying session

Race one

As Tom was getting his leathers on for the Superpole race, it started to rain and the race was postponed 15 minutes and declared a wet race.

In the time that was given to change to wets, it stopped raining and Tom decided to keep slicks on (as did everyone else bar 1 person) When they got to the grid the top 3 qualifiers were told that if it got slippy then all they had to do was raise there hand and the race would be stopped for safety reasons.

Tom got a great start from 7th on the grid, he was 3rd into the first corner, but didn’t get a good drive out of it and came out in 9th!

Tom slowly worked his way up to 6th. Overtaking Josh-Henry Eversfield, Adam Boyle and Jason Dobson in 3 laps. Tom was still in 6th on the 10th lap out of 20 when it started to rain again, Tom backed off and was reovertaken by Josh Eversfield and the race was stopped on the next lap, meaning Tom finished 7th and 4th in the Cup class. Tom was disappointed with this because he felt the race should have been stopped on the 10th lap as soon as it started raining (when he was in 6th and 3rd in class) but instead it was stopped on the 11th still as they say it’s racing

On the Sunday morning Warm Up session the track was wet and Tom went out and just took it easy, and was 6th fastest.

By Tom’s first race it had dried up mostly but was still quite cloudy.

Race one

Tom got off to another great start and was 4th into the first corner. Tom felt good and was staying with the front pack, and was pulling away from 6th place. But after about 6 laps the front pack started pulling away from Tom. Tom couldn’t match the pace. Soon the front pack had pulled a lot on Tom and Tom was having a lonely race but still managed consistent lap times. But toms pit board went from +6 seconds to +5, to +4 each lap. Without no one to chase Toms lap times were not improving and the pack behind him were catching him. With 2 laps to go Matthew Paulo overtook Tom. In the next lap they had a great battle and Tom overtook him on the brakes but Tom out broke himself and went wide, leaving Matt with a 2 second lead going into the last lap. Tom cut this down but it wasn’t enough and Tom had to settle for 5th overall and 3rd in class.

Race two

By the second race the weather was better and the sun started to come out.

Tom got off to the usual good start and was 3rd into the first corner. But he messed up the exit and didn’t get a very good drive out of the first corner putting him back in 10th. He fought back with some hard but fair overtaking moves. And found himself in 6th behind Jamie Edwards. He went up the inside of him on the second of the double left hand corners. They had a battle for 2 laps and then the red flag went out. Jamie had crashed out and had hurt himself quite badly. The race was stopped and everyone pulled in and had to wait in the pits for a good 10 minutes or more. After the crash had been cleared they went back out for a 6-lap sprint to the finish. Tom again got a good start and was 3rd into the first corner and this time he stayed there on the exit. He stayed in 3rd for 2 laps. His tyres weren’t warming up due to his low weight and the bike was slipping and sliding on the left hand corners. But he tried his hardest and finished a respectable 5th, and 3rd in class.

This still keeps him in 2nd overall, 2nd in Class and 1st in the ACU Clubmans Championship

Hopefully he can improve at Anglesey next time out.

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