RPW/RCD Motorsport 125GP Thruxton race report

Round 4 of the Sunoco British Championship was held at the super-fast ex airfield circuit of Thruxton. Set in the rolling chalk downs of Hampshire, the 2.356 mile circuit is characterised by its long curves and wide track. Racing often comes down to dramatic slip streaming / out braking moves into the club chicane.

Both Tom Carne and Callan Cooper returned to the series after sustaining injuries at previous rounds (Callan—broken shin at Oulton and Tom knocked unconscious at Croft). Neither of the riders had been to Thruxton before so they would need to make the most of free practice on Saturday.

Free Practice (FP) 1, held in blustery overcast but dry conditions saw Tom build up steadily to end the session in 15th with a time of 1:28.162 in his final lap of the 20 minute session. Callan was less fortunate and a technical problem caused him to crash at the first corner where he knocked his hand heavily leaving it bruised and sore.

FP 2 saw Tom improve his time by 2 seconds to end the session having progressed to 13th place on the timing sheet. Cal, obviously suffering from his earlier knock, put in 8 painful laps to end the session 31st on the timing sheet. For a rider who has started from the front row of the grid this was a bitter disappointment.

With the very overcast skies surrounding the circuit the team knew Qualifying 1 needed to be good, should conditions worsen for the late in the day Q2 session. It really didn’t pan out this way and although both riders went quicker they really didn’t advance their provisional grid positions. Tom set a time of 1:25.795 placing him 14th on the provisional grid. Tom had attempted to make a pit stop to improve his position amongst riders on the track but when he returned to the live circuit he found himself amongst slower riders and while pushing to make that one quick lap he made mistakes which caused him to loose time. Callan’s session saw him put in 14 laps with him setting his fastest lap midway through the session with a 1:28.708 putting him 27th on the grid.

 Conditions for Q2 remained dry and was a relief for the team who knew with a dry track they could improve. It was however immediately apparent that Tom had a problem as he passed the team on his first flying lap. The bike was spluttering and would not “rev out”. Tom came into the pits and confirmed what we could hear. The team regrouped and sent Tom out while they collected some spares from the truck at the other end of the paddock. Tom returned back to the pits and stood and watched as the team changed, plugs leads and checked connections/components. The bike was back together with 6 mins left on the clock as Tom exited the pit lane, now 19th on the timing screen. Tom’s next 4 laps saw him improve with each circulation from 19th—12th—8th then his final lap saw him take 4th and his first front row start of the season.

Callan also made a valiant effort to improve his time in Q2 by 1.5 seconds putting him 25th on the grid. Callan put in 15 brave laps, obviously not at his usual peak fitness, but struggled to reach his normal high standard.

Race day warm-up went well for the both riders, with Cal putting in the 18th fastest lap while Tom proved it was no one off, finishing 5th in the 8 minutes of track time.

Just after lunch the weather delivered the rain that had been promised, leaving the track saturated for the 125 race. With Tom on the front row he knew he needed to stay out of trouble and build up his pace as his confidence with the level of grip grew. Cal on the other hand lauched himself off the line and aimed to use the first two laps to gain as much time on the leading riders as possible. This looked to of worked as bu the end of lap 1 Cal had powered through to 8th, 2 places behind Tom in 6th. Unfortunately this all came unstuck for Cal who crashed out on the 2nd lap while pushing hard. Tom Carne was sitting pretty in 5th on lap 5 but fell back to 7th by lap 9. With 3 laps left Tom dug deep and stayed with the group battling for 4th which consisted of Bradley Ray, Joe Irving and himself. Unable to make a safe move Tom brought it home in a very impressive 6th. In doing so Tom also set the fastest sector 1 speed and 2nd fastest sector 2. After the race Tom and his mechanics couldn't praise the bike enough and really wanted to thank Johan Luyten for his work on supplying Tom with the best possible engine “kit”.

Heading to Knockhill in two weekends time Tom is now 17th in the championship with Callan 19th.