Anglesey 25th-27th August 2012

I went out into the qualifying sessions confident that I could be up there. However, as I was going round the track I could feel the rear-end sliding. I came into pitlane and Chris made some quick changes to the bike.

We set-off for the Demon Tweekes Welsh Prix at Anglesey race circuit early Saturday morning. We knew that the weather would be unpredictable, so it was vital that we worked with Chris to secure a good dry and wet set-up.This Thundersport GB round was different from the rest as there were to be two additional prize-winning races, sponsored by Demon Tweekes, on the Monday. As this race would consist of a mixture of new and existing GP1 and 600 Sportsman Elite competitors, it was important for me to maintain a fast pace in order to even qualify for these races.


As it was a bank holiday weekend, Saturday was ultimately the official track day. We worked hard all day, in all sessions, to sort a good race set-up for qualifying.
Out of 40, I qualified 8th on the grid. I was a bit disappointed as I would have liked to have been higher but the competition was so strong that I couldn't go any faster. I had in mind that, if I could get a good start, I would be able to stay with the front-runners in the first race.

Sunday would be the first of the weekend's race days. As there were to be two additional races on Monday, Thundersport had scheduled two championship races on the Sunday.
    I set the fastest lap in the morning warm-up, so I was excited to be going into the first race. I got an average start to the race but rode hard on the first lap and I got up to 6th place. Going into Rocket, I managed to get under David Jones and then got my head down to catch the front-runners. At the end of lap two, Peter Baker and Sam Hornsey had a coming together and both came off, which promoted me up to 3rd in the GP1 race. The bike didn't feel 100% so I had to push really hard to get onto the back of David Haire. I saw that Ben Scranage, my main championship rival, had fallen off so I decided not to risk passing Haire. Overall, I finished 3rd in GP1 and 1st in the stock class, which I was over the moon about.

Setting off on race two, I got a reasonably good start and by the end of the first lap, I had got up to 5th. I got stuck behind Haire and could see the leaders getting away. Unfortunately, it took me four laps to pass Haire and by that time, the leaders were a couple of seconds up the road. I knew that I would struggle to catch them, so once I had put a second into Haire, I made sure the gap stayed the same and finished 4th in GP1. I also secured first in the Stock1000 class, which was my 8th consecutive win of the season. I also secured the new Stock lap record around Anglesey, with a time of 1.09.642, which I was really happy with.
     Taking the 'megalaps' into account, I managed to promote myself to 6th on the grid for the Monday races.

Over the night, the circuit experienced severe wind and torrential rain. Unfortunately, this continued into the morning and was set to worsen by midday. Therefore, the Thundersport GB officials took the right decision to declare that there would be no racing. Aside from the Demon Tweekes races, there was only one championship race that was missed (to be set at a later date).

As always, I'd like to thank Alan and Charlotte, my mum and dad, Louise, Chris Moore, Rob Webb for buying me a set of tyres, Alex Hutchinson and Acea Webb for their kind donation of knee sliders and all of my sponsors for getting me there and making this championship challenge possible. I have narrowed the points difference between myself and Scranage to 11, so all's to play for at Cadwell Park next month!

All photos provided by the Bike Insurer