15 June 2008
Jnr. Team: Thunderbike/Minitwins
Round 3 – Croix en Ternois

Thunderbike
After a long 2 month break, due to BSB rescheduling their cancelled Brands meeting, we finally made the trip across to France for the international leg of the Thunderbike championship.

The practice day times from Friday translated well into the first race and Simon was able to pull a clear lead from the beginning of the race. Never threatened he continued on the finish almost 10 seconds clear of the chasing field.

The other competitors weren’t going to be caught napping again and Race 2 was a much closer affair. Simon once again led from the start but this time chased by Garry Budgeon, Simon’s main championship rival. Simon led the race for 8 laps until Garry made a clever pass which put some distance between them. Simon fought back, posting the fastest lap of the race, and indeed the weekend, but the chequered flag was pulled out a lap too early for Simon to get back at Garry and he had to settle for 2nd position.

Simon once again pushed from the start on Race 3 and having put in some consistently fast laps managed to put some clear space behind him. During the race he built on this lead and finally crossed the line in first position with a 6 second gap over the field.

The rain came in Race 4 and despite Simon’s proven pace in the dry he had never ridden this bike in the wet, along with the unfamiliar Pirelli wets that were now fitted to the bike. Simon got a good start but immediately run into grip problems from the rear tyre. After a few warnings from the tyres Simon had to settle for 3rd place simply unable to get on the power as he would have liked out of the corners.

Simon has now finished every race of this season on the podium and takes away a 31 point lead in the championship to Round 4, Cadwell Park.

Minitwins
Piers, having never visited Croix before, overcame his lack of circuit knowledge to finish the first race a creditable 8th position.

Piers once again put in a determined performance around the twisty and technical French track in Race 2. He finally finished 5th managing to stave off the hotly pursuing pack. He also took another half a second off his lap times.

The third race was run in wet conditions, which makes Croix particularly treacherous due to the bumpy track surface. Piers kept his cool in the difficult conditions to finish a very creditable 6th position.

Piers was also competing in the Thunderbike class this weekend to gain extra track time and knowledge but unfortunately in the Thunderbike race, preceding the last Minitwin race, he was pushed wide onto the grass and crashed rejoining the track. Piers was taken to the medical centre and finally emerged feeling very battered and bruised but fortunately nothing more untoward. Sadly, there was no time to prepare either rider or bike for the final Minitwin outing.

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