The Biker Place

Qualifying Session

Qualifying 1 went well and Tom put in some consistently quick lap times despite his injured left hand. He managed to qualify 4th fastest. In qualifying 2 Tom bettered his time but not enough; the combined qualifying result meant Tom dropped to 6th on the grid.
He didn’t worry about this, as he was confident he could get on the front row in the Superpole race.

Superpole Race 1 16 laps

Tom got a good start from 6th on the grid and was 3rd into turn one. He overtook Adam Dudley by slip streaming him down Revett Straight. Adam overtook him on the 2nd lap so Tom used him to drag him along to increase his gap on the pack behind untill Adam started to pull away. Adam isn’t in Tom’s class so Tom didn’t want to start battling with him as that would only slow them both down.

Tom had pulled away from the pack fighting for 4th place and had a 6 second gap on them. Near to the end of the race the pack behind him reduced the gap to 5 seconds but that was still enough of a buffer for Tom to calmly finish in 3rd overall and 2nd in his standard class.

Race 2 15 laps

Tom was moved up to 3rd on the grid, including brolly dolly! He got off to a great start and got the hole shot. But down the straight he was slipstreamed by Adam Dudley and the rocket that is Ed Rendell’s bike, shot past Tom and Adam (who is in the open class with a tuned bike) as if they were standing still?

The next lap Tom was slipstreamed again down the back straight, by Sam Burman. Tom, Sam and Jon Lea were having a great battle and were swapping places every lap. Tom was faster in the corners but Sam’s bike was much quicker down the straight. Then with a few laps to go Tom slipped the clutch coming out of the chicane before the start/finish straight, and the rear tyre slid out, gripped again, then spat Tom over the handle bars with a massive high side. This was probably followed by one of “Little Toms” gestures! He got up ok and the only damage to the bike was that the front mudguard broke when the bike hit Tom, after he had stopped sliding plus some minor repairs (soon fixed by Mechanic Dad)(and a borrowed mudguard from Jamie Edwards).

Toms newly air brushed Arai Corsair had a few bad scratches on it, but it’s nothing that damages the internal safety of it (sorry Colin can you do a quick touch up please).

Race 3 15 laps

Tom got off to an ok start and was 3rd into the first corner. Sam Burman overtook Tom down the back straight. Tom and Sam were having another great battle. Jon Lea had got off to a great start and was in 3rd, leaving Tom and Sam to battle it out for 4th and 5th. Sam was having a great ride and put in some quick laps to catch the front pack, leaving Tom to chase. Tom started gaining on the front pack near to the end of the race but there wasn’t enough laps left to catch them. On the 14th lap Tom saw black marks on the entry of the Bomb Hole (turn 5) and then as he exited he saw the green bike of Ed Rendell (hope someone can tell me why? This meant Tom was 4th overall and 2nd in his class. Then on the same lap on the exit of the chicane before the start/finish (the same corner Tom crashed on) even more luck came Tom’s way when he saw Adam Dudley crash out (sorry Adam).

This put Tom in 3rd overall and 2nd in class! He was over the moon with this result. This means he is winning the ACU Clubman GP3 Championship, and he also gets £80 for coming 3rd overall.

Written by Tom Weeden

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