Round 1 - Brand Hatch Indy

This weekend was the first round of the season. After a long winter being off the bike due to Injury and ACL recovery, I was looking forward to the season starting. 

This weekends luck of the draw meant that both qualifying and races for the Thunderbike and the MRO 600 were back-to-back. It wasn’t long before the effects of the shoulder injuries became apparent, and I realised that there was still some way to recovery. It was quickly obvious that it was going to be a difficult weekend. 

I was able to get some clean laps in during qualifying, but these proved not to be quick enough to get as far forwards on the grid as I had hoped. 

The first Thunderbike Ultra race got underway; I got an ok start off of the line but got boxed in. It was a pretty uneventful race and I brought it home P6. A quick swap of the bike and it was onto the MRO 600 race. I really felt the effect of the pain in my shoulders and wasn’t able to run with the leading pack and as the race went on this compounded and I fell further down the pack to P13.  After a short break it was back to it for the last 2 races of the day. This didn’t get off to a good start. I was held up by a spectator’s van stopped in the tunnel to chat to someone on the way to the grid meaning myself and a fellow competitor missed the warmup lap meaning I had to start from the back. This put some fire in my belly, I put my head down and manage to make my way through the pack up to P7. It was then straight onto the MRO 600 race. I still had some remaining fire in my belly and I was able to get a good start from P16 on the grid. Coupled with the frustration of missing the previous warm up lap and the race being shortened by the red flag I made it through the pack and to the end bringing it over the line in P8.

Onto Sunday, the first 2 races were on my wet bikes. For the Thunderbike Ultra race I started up in 5th place on the grid. It was a pretty steady race due to track conditions. I was able to make a few places up to get to P2. Next was the MRO 600 I started the warm up lap and it was obvious that there was something not quiet right with the bike. I was able to start the race but wasn’t able to complete the first lap due to only running on 3 cylinders. The last Thunderbike Ultra race was pretty uneventful, we did have a dry track however a yellow flag for the entire race meant I couldn’t progress further up the grid. For the final MRO 600 race I was starting further down the grid due to not completing a flying lap in the earlier race. I spent this race fighting my way back through the pack to finish in P7. 

Thank you 📷 Sophie Louise Photography and 📷 pictures_hlt for allowing free use of their photographs