RCD-FPW Racing 125gp team, Oulton race report

Just in time, especially for Tom, the conditions improved dramatically for the final qualifying period allowing him to revert back to his dry settings. Q2 ended with times very tight and 3rd to 10th were covered by less then a second, as Tom posted his fasted dry lap of the weekend with a 1:50.556 which yet again saw him end the 30 minute session leading the 3rd row in 9th place.

It was Callan Cooper who had to really dig deep to improve his dry track speed and he did just that to post a time of 1:50.947, just 0.391 seconds behind his team mate to complete the 3rd row of thegrid in 12th place. The changeable conditions were making it very difficult for the youngsters to make suspension setting decisions as although dry, the track wasn’t offering the same amount of grip as it did on Friday.The conditions that befell the circuit on Sunday were truly atrocious, but like the true talents they are both Callan and Tom took to the circuit in morning warm-up.

With the opportunity to run 4 lapsat the very most, both riders got there heads down and checked the wet settings they seem to be refining too often this season. Cal was right up there in 4th with a 2:06.943, while Tom’s 2:07.516 placed him 6th.

As the day progressed the rain fell stronger and by race time there was standing water around the track along with running water crossing in numerous places on the circuit.

The race went ahead and both Tom and Cal made the start they needed to stay out of trouble in the opening lap. Cal rapidly worked his way up to 6th with Tom 11th as they crossed the line for the first time. One lap later, in front of the teams home crowd, Callan made the moves needed to put himself into 3rd place. At the same time in this frantic 8 lapper Tom was up into 8th and looking comfortable.

Cal’s comfort levels came to an abrupt end though as his bike washed out, halfway around on lap 3.This was such bad luck for a youngster who seems to of had more than his fair share of bad luck this year. Tom’s 3rd lap was his strongest and this saw him overtake Jordan Weeving to go into 6th with a lap almost 2 seconds faster than those around him. Trying to maintain this pace was causing Tom to have a few moments and while he tried to settle down into a steady pace the chasing pack closed in on their target. On lap 6 Tom made a mistake and lost his position to a pack of riders that saw himfall to 11th where he remained until the chequered flag.

Post race every rider in parc ferme agreed that these were possibly the worse conditions they’d ridden in. In response to the riders comments and the level of water on the track the meeting was then cancelled immediately after the 125 race,highlighting the bravery and talent of the youngsters to compete as they did.