In the afternoon the track temp was over 45 deg and we were using the old tyres from Q1 so we didn’t expect to improve my times, but I managed to set some really good laps and on my last lap on 16 lap old tyres set a time that was just 0.1s slower than my fastest lap in the morning. We knew from this I would have really strong race pace starting from 10th on the grid.
I didn’t get a great start and dropped a couple of places. I ended up battling for my position with the second group whilst the front group got away, I still really enjoyed the race though and in the end managed to finish in 11th to get my best ever European Talent Cup finish and first points.
I was determined to get away with the lead group in race 2 as I knew I could do the same lap times as them and I managed to do this after a good start. At the end of lap 1 I was in 11th position but I was in the front group and as the laps went down I ended up in 8th position right with the front group fighting for the lead. With two laps to go I started to push harder but the whole group did as well and one of the other riders made a mistake and swerved right in front of me but I managed to overtake and get into 6th. He then got back past me and I went a bit wide and had totally lost my rhythm and had started making mistakes so when I tried to push on I crashed at 104mph going into the last lap. This was really disappointing (and quite sore!) as I could have had a really good finish and I also caused a bit of damage to the bike.
The next round of the European Talent Cup is at Albacete over the weekend of 19-20th October and may be wet at this time of year so anything can happen but I cant wait to get out there again.
Massive thanks to Mark and his team for all the work they put in and also to my team mate Josh Whatley and his family for welcoming us and looking after me and my dad! Thanks again to all my sponsors as without them I couldn’t be doing this championship and competing against the best riders from Europe and beyond.
Photos: Agustin Ubiola.
75