The Biker Place

An amazing rollercoaster weekend of highs and lows at Thruxton may have seen Tim Hastings leave Round 1 of the British 125 GP Championship with only a few points to his name - but he’s able to look forward to the rest of the season with real confidence after a superb qualifying performance.

Tim has always gone well at Thruxton and scored his first Championship point at the fast and bumpy Hampshire circuit in 2007. Two dry free practice sessions on Friday saw Tim move from 6th place in the morning to finish the day topping the time sheets for the very first time in the championship, ending with a best lap of 1.24.523.

Saturday saw a change in the weather and the 125s went out on a wet track for the first qualifying session. Once again 15 year old Tim was soon on the pace and put in stunning fastest lap of 1.29.523 - a time which was never bettered during the session. Having tried to push for an even faster lap, Tim was lucky to walk away from a 111mph crash at Noble - but with bike and rider largely undamaged the team was able to look forward to the second session. As it turned out, the second session was held in even wetter conditions and very few riders bettered their morning times. Tim therefore gained his first ever pole position at a BSB event with a lap time almost 0.6 seconds ahead of the field - a considerable margin in 125 racing!

With the 125s having to wait until almost the end of race day - and a building sense of anticipation - nerves finally got the better of Tim on the start line, and on this occasion his now traditional lightening start was just a bit too quick. Adjudged to have jump started, the resultant ride through penalty undid all his fine qualifying work, and after completing the painfully slow ride down pit lane, Tim rejoined the race back in 18th place. That could effectively have been the end of his race, but a bizarre crash involving fellow Scot Deane Brown resulted in the safety car being deployed, allowing the pack to bunch up and Tim to close the gap on the riders ahead.

With only a few laps remaining Tim put in some stunning times to close the gap on the leaders and he finally crossed the line in an impressive 10th place. Although disappointed with his start, the team could take consolation from his mature ride and a solid points finish at the chequered flag. The weekend, however, still had one final twist.

When the timesheets came out Tim was adjudged to have passed his team mate Martin Glossop prior to crossing the start/finish line immediately after the safety car had come in. With Tim convinced that he had timed his pass to perfection it soon became clear that the 0.005 second gap was due to the positioning of the transponders on the two bikes - Tim’s being in the nose of his bike, while Martin’s is fixed to the frame in the middle of the bike. Although he never actually passed Martin before the line, the timing screens told a different story, and the resultant 5 second penalty turned his 10th place into 14th - leaving Tim with only two championship points to show for his eventful weekend.

Despite this final disappointment, the Thruxton weekend certainly held more positives than negatives, and highlighted just how well Tim and the KRP team are gelling together. The whole team now looks forward to the next round at another of Tim’s favourite tracks, Oulton Park, on Bank Holiday Monday, the 5th of May.

Team Twister would like to thank all of our sponsors for their continued support, especially Green Machines, Digby Brown, Pro-Scot, Nevis Marketing, Arkose Design and Phoenix Honda, without which this season just wouldn’t be possible.

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