The Biker Place

An update on my progress so far this season.

We have now passed the half way point and have had a very eventful year so far.

As you know, I have been racing in Britain’s most prestigious 125 National Championship: the Relentless 125GP British Super Bike Championship. Amongst this I have also competed in several Thundersport GB race meets for extra track time.

My luck this year has been mixed, we started the year off poorly due to an incorrect set up with the bike. We have to run a control fuel in the British Championship, and we had no settings at all for this fuel. And with very limited pre season testing due to lack of funding, the engine set up was completely wrong.

Due to this, I had a terrible first round at Brands Hatch qualifying a lowly 35th, and finishing 26th overall and 10th in the Academy Cup.

However the problems were sorted out, after a lot of work on the engine, changing almost every setting internally, we eventually found a set up that worked.

Next up was Oulton Park, a track which I hadn’t had much previous track time on. The weather conditions for the race were changeable and the tyre choice was critical. I chose a slick on the rear and wet on the front due to lack of trust in the greasy track conditions. I finished 5th in Academy Cup and 20th overall which exceeded my expectations massively (after qualifying far down in 31st)

Just as I thought my luck was on the up, it crashed down again at round 3, Donington Park. I qualified 25th and felt confident of a good finish.

After a good start, I was running in the top 20 but unfortunately the bike seized just before the race was stopped due to a red flag incident and I was unable to make the restart.

But this didn’t deter me, and I bounced back at the next meeting Round 4 which was at Thruxton, another track which I had little experience on. Throughout the Free practice sessions I was in the top 15, finishing 12th in free practice 2. But again disaster struck and a rear wheel bearing seized in qualifying 2 leaving me 25th on the grid.

In the race I finished 18th and 5th in the Academy Cup.

At Round 5, Snetterton, the meeting started very poorly for me, with a crash on the first lap of the first practice session. However the race started very well and I got a good start from way back in 22nd on the grid and fought my way up to 15th overall and 6th in the Academy Cup, but due to my seat sub frame breaking I was getting a lot of vibration through the bike, meaning I had to slow down considerably on the last few laps and dropped 2 positions to finish 17th overall and 6th in the Academy Cup;

Next up was Round 6 at the Scottish track, Knockhill. I had never previously ridden this track, but I learnt it very quickly and running in the top 20 throughout all the practise sessions finally qualifying 23rd.

But again bad luck hit me, and on last corner of the 2nd lap whilst in 15th position, a rider in front of me crashed and I hit his bike and was flung into the air, hurting my back.

But a week later I was riding again, still in pain though. I returned to Snetterton but this time with Thundersport GB; the club that I rode with last year.

The other riders had 6 x 20 minute practice sessions on Friday, but again due to funding issues we decided not to do this. I turned up on Saturday, straight into qualifying, and was 10th fastest.

The 3 races that followed this have to be the highlight of the season so far.

The first race on Saturday went really well. I got a great start and by the end of the first lap I was in 2nd, 3 seconds behind 1st place.

After several laps I caught him up, past him and started to pull away from him. By the end of the race I had pulled 3 seconds on him, crossing the line in 1st.

This race boosted my confidence massively after my series of crashes and engine failures in BSB.

I repeated this result in race 2 on Sunday. This time however by a massive 6 seconds!

Unfortunately I couldn’t get the clean sweep of wins for the final race on Sunday.

I was winning the race by 4 seconds going into the last corner, but as I came out of it, I hit a false neutral causing me to loose all exit speed. I clicked it back into gear but unfortunately 2nd place caught me up and beat me to the line by 0.117 of a second!

On the back of my 2 wins at Snetterton, round 7 of the British championship meeting was at Mallory Park, a track which is one of my least favourites.

I qualified 16th and battled my way up the pack to 10th but after a long battle with my team mate, I eventually finished 11th and 4th in the Academy cup!

This was my first points finish in the overall British Championship, and I narrowly missed a podium in the Academy cup.

I was invited back to Thundersport to ride in the GP3 125 class to race as a support class to Moto Gp. I raced on Saturday in front of a crowd in excess of 90,000 at Donington Park.

This was the last ever GP to be held at Donington, because from 2010 onwards it will be held at Silverstone.

I qualified well in the wet, holding pole position for most of the session, until on the last lap where I was pushed back to second.

In the actual race I got a good start and was 2nd into the first corner. I held second all the way until the last lap. I was passed on the brakes going into the chicane, but got past him with a daring move up the inside on the last corner of the last lap.

I past the line in 2nd. It felt amazing on the warm down lap, looking up at all the people in the grandstands etc, and they all saw my bike with your logo details on.

Round 8 Brands GP was next, where I had never ridden the full circuit before.

Despite this I was 10th quickest on a wet 1st practice session.

But unfortunately a series of suspension and engine problems left me 24th on the grid for the race on Sunday.

This didn’t deter me, and a great start and an aggressive first lap saw me overtake several riders,

And after a few laps I made my move on my team mate Michael Hill, moving up to 14th place.

The rider in front had pulled away too far for me to catch, so I settled for 14th and 5th in the cup.

Thanks again for the help for this year. I hope you can continue your sponsorship and support for next year, it is very much appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Tom Weeden #11