The Biker Place

Another step forward for Alec Wright and Team Repli-cast in Spain

The second round of the CEV Spanish National Championship once again saw the team achieve their aims of Alec both qualifying for, and finishing the 125GP race. The conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya did their best to make it a challenge, the skies were leaden for most of the weekend, with a wet morning qualifying and drying afternoon session eventually giving way to a blustery, soaking race day.

The team had visited the track with Alec earlier in the year for a CMV warm up race, unfortunately the weather this time round meant much of the valuable data gained then went out of the window, and it was a fresh start. The track had also seen weekends of Formula 1 and Truck racing since the CMV race, the circuit had a few more bumps for Alec to find his way round as a result.

The wet Saturday morning qualifying session saw Alec running well up the order for much of the 40 minute session, only dropping down a little as the local riders used their experience of just how much grip is available in the wet conditions at the Montmelo track. He ended up on the provisional grid in 35th, easily in the race. The afternoon session was forecast to be drier, and come the start the conditions overhead were, but the track was still damp in places. Some teams sent their riders out on wet tyres, Alec one of those to go out on slicks. Slick tyres soon proved to be the right call as many of the riders that went out on wet tyres came back into the pits to change to dry, losing them valuable session time.

Alec soon got dialled into the conditions, and after a brief visit back to the pit lane for some minor set up changes was able to go out and put in lap after lap, the times from the wet morning session proving redundant in a matter of minutes. As the session drew to an end all eyes turned to the timing monitor, where Alec was easily in the qualifying zone for the race, putting his Repli-cast Honda 35th position. This was one place higher than his Valencia result in round 1, and with improving his results round by round the aim for the season, happy faces all round.

With some suspension and electrical changes made to the bike overnight on the Saturday, it was out onto the soaking grid for the race. A good start by Alec saw him make up a few positions in the first lap, and then continue to steadily move up the order as the wet track caused many other riders problems. By the time the last lap started Alec was in 25th position, equalling the superb result he achieved in the first CEV race of the season. Not settling for that though he caught and passed the two riders ahead of him in the final corners of the race, coming over the line to finish in a very credible 23rd position!

Gary Dawson Team Manager States

I am so Proud of Alec and the Team for the commitment shown this weekend under very difficult conditions. Alec continues to impress us on every outing, finishing ahead of both his qualifying and race classification from the previous round, He continues the upwards momentum for the difficult CEV challenge. The initial aim for Alec was to qualify for the races, and that’s now 2/2. Round three is at Jerez in a couple of weeks time, a track Alec has not ridden before, so the challenge continues. Many thanks to all the sponsors who have made this adventure into Spain possible, it is certainly going to plan so far! Roll on Jerez!

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