56º North August 2019 | Page 78

Top ten finishes round out July for Jack Hart

I was feeling confident going into round 4 of the British Talent Cup because Iiked the Snetterton circuit when I had raced there last year getting one of my best results. This round came less than a week after I raced in round 4 of the European Talent Cup over in Aragon, we didn’t get back until the Monday and then we were off to Snetterton on the Wednesday so it was very hectic trying to get everything ready.

The weather was warm and sunny for the Friday practice and I planned on just concentrating on setting my references and markers over the two sessions as I hadn’t rode at this circuit since last year. I had a feeling that the track was dirty and that my foot was slipping on the pegs throughout practice. When I get into the garage I realised that there was oil all over my boot and the bike causing it to slide around. With a wet session later I managed 9th overall ahead of qualifying.

The track was damp for qualifying and we went out on the wet tyres again with the track drying. Because of the changes made to my bike I was able to push much harder right from the start and for the full session I was running in the top 3. With everyone pushing hard I was coming out of turn three and nearly high sided, I managed to save it but I had smashed my screen and didn’t manage to improve my time. This unfortunately put me in 7th for the race start.

When we were waiting for the race it started raining again and this meant that we changed to the wet tyres and the wet set up for the race. On the warm up lap the track was basically dry and I knew with the wet tyres and set up I was going to really struggle as I just can’t get any confidence in the feeling. This also made me a bit cautious into the first corner and I lost a couple of positions and time to the fast group. By the time I had a bit more confidence and had made up the positions I had lost I was in 8th position and quite a bit back on the group battling for 4th position. I tried my best and was lapping a bit quicker than the group in front but just couldn’t catch up and finished in 8th position.

It was completely dry for race two. I had gone through how the bike was feeling with both Santi and my mechanic Jose and how I was struggling to get confidence in the front end. I don’t normally like changing the bike just before a race as you don’t get a chance to really see how it feels but I thought it was worth the risk. I got a good start to the race but I was just a bit too cautious with the changes to the bike and by the time I realised how good the bike felt and how hard I could push the group fighting for 3rd position had got a good lead of 4 seconds on me.

I managed to bring that back to a couple of seconds by the end of the race but it was just a bit too late to challenge for the podium and I finished in 8th position again. I wasn’t happy with that but it had been a difficult weekend right from the first session and I had managed to get solid points and I am still only 21 points from 3rd position overall.

The next round of the British Talent Cup is to be run alongside the MotoGP at Brno over the weekend of the 3-4th August, most of us haven’t been to this track but I’m sure it will suit me and I hope I can compete again at the front and build on my good results earlier in the season.