Tom Weeden Pre-Season Testing
Cartagena Testing Report
Tom Weeden, the 16 year old 125 British Championsip rider from Maidstone, recently returned from 5 days testing in Europe. With the weather in Britain not being suitable for some good, worthwhile pre-season testing, the team headed to the South of Spain in search of better conditions. The fast and techniqually demanding Cartagena track seemed perfect to gain some good data for the up and coming British 125cc Championship; however rain threatened to disrupt the proceedings.
On day 1 Tom managed to get more laps riding his pushbike than he did on his Honda. Tom managed a grand total of 1 lap on his pushbike, far exceeding the amount he managed to complete on his 125. Tom only reached the second corner, on a wet and windy track; giving it too much throttle too soon, the rear end stepped out and sent Tom flying over the handle bars. That crash ended Toms first day of testing as he decided to sit out the rest of the sessions.
The weather was slightly better on day 2 and by the end of the day, the slicks were on and the lap times were falling. However, again Tom decided to go and play in the kitty litter after missing a gear and running into the gravel at 100kph. Tom had a very worthwhile day, and managed to run in his new standard barrell and several new pistons.
Monday night Toms dad Steve put the Seel barrell on, to run that in on Tuesday and gain some data for the tuned engine. Despite the wet weather on Tuesday, Tom went out in every session to run the tuned barrell and pistons in, and held his own against the Aprillia’s in the wet!
On the last day of testing the sun finally came out, however it wasnt until the 3rd session that the track was ready for slicks. The track was very deceptive; it looked dry, but when Tom went out on slicks in the 2nd session (and was the only rider to do so) he almost crashed again. Tom put the power on coming out of the last hairpin and the back of the bike slid out and threatened to send Tom flying over the handle bars again. Tom gave in, and put the wets back on for the rest of the session. However by the 3rd session the slicks were on and Tom could finally start to push harder for the rest of the day.
The weeks testing had put Tom in good stead for the first British Championship round at Brands Hatch, where Tom hopes to be competing for a podium finish in the Academy Cup.
Good info Tom, thanks for the update.
Nice report hope to see more of this stuff on this site, good luck for 2010.