The Biker Place

Sunday May 4th

Practice

Tom Weeden went out for his practice with the 250’s and the 400’s. The sun was out and the track was warm. He was putting in consistently quick lap times but would have been faster if it had not been for the 400’s and 250’s. They were braking much before Tom was and they have no corner speed at all, so Tom overtakes them on the brakes and around the corners but as soon as they got to a straight they overtook him again.

Tom was 6th fastest out of 44 bikes!

Race 1

Tom was out with the Pre injection 1000’s and the Thunder bike class as well as Open 400. Tom was placed 36th on the grid in last place, as he was a late entry. But despite this low placing Tom got a good start and was with the front pack at the exit of Park Bend. But the more powerful 1000’s overtook Tom down the straight and pulled away. Tom was in 25th place on the first lap, but he started to pick the 250’s, 400’s and 1000’s off one by one, lap by lap.

He found himself in 21st place on the last lap and was chasing a 250 and an Aprillia 1000. As they went through Hall Bends for the last time the 250 went a bit wide so Tom put the power on and went past him and then overtook the 1000 going into the Hairpin.

Tom finished in 19th out of 33 finishers. He was 5th in his class!

And he beat 7 1000’s!

Race 2

After his 19th place in race 1 he was no longer at the back of the grid.

It had just started to rain very lightly and nobody was sure what the track was like. Tom decided to go for it because whatever happened he already had his signature from the first race.

But Tom got a good start from 19th on the grid and put in some quick lap times. He had a few little slides as he was on slicks and the track was a little wet in places.

He was beating Ed Rendell (Honda 125) who is currently winning the Thundersport GB cup. After a few laps it had stopped raining and Tom felt ok to go faster.

He crossed the line in 16th place with Ed Rendell in 21st. Third in class.

Monday May 5th

Race 1

There was no practice and it went straight into racing, but with 12 laps instead of 8 laps.

Tom got off to a good start from 16th on the grid. He passed a few bikes on the brakes going into Park Corner. He was in 14th going into the last lap, chasing a 400cc and managed to overtake him going over the mountain. Both Toms and the 400’s front wheel were in the air and they were about 10cm apart. But luckily Tom didn’t hit him and overtook him safely. Tom went on to take the finish flag in 13th place. 3rd in his class. He had 10 1000cc bikes behind him!

Race 2

Tom got off to a great start and was going around the gooseneck on the 3rd lap when the red flag went out. He returned to the Start and once the crash had been sorted out they went back out again. But this time another person crashed on an oil patch on the warm up lap.

After that crash had been sorted out, they set off for the 3rd time. The race had been shortened to 8 laps instead of 12.

Tom got another good start and started to move up the field. He had Ed Rendell trying to overtake on every possible corner but he shut the door each time. Tom had caught up an Aprillia 1000 and Tom was overtaking on the corners but the 1000 kept going past on the straight. This was slowing Tom down quite a lot. Ed Rendell slipstreamed Tom down the straight on the last lap. But Tom overtook him again. On the corner after that though Ed managed to get past and in doing so got past the 1000. Tom tried to get past the 1000 and catch Ed up but he just couldn’t manage it. He came over the line in 10th overall, out of 30 finishers. 3rd in his 400 open class. Another signature and another trophy.

The weekend was a great success. Tom learnt a lot and even had to sign autographs for some people!

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