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The
ninth round of the British Supersport Championships proved to be a weekend
of mixed fortunes for the Hardinge Ice Valley team. In an incident packed
race, rider Tom Tunstall managed to limit the damage with a creditable
twelfth place finish.
Fresh from the team’s impressive foray into the world championship
two weekends ago, it was back to the domestic championship at Silverstone
with Tom and the team’s confidence on a high.
Free practice was essentially a wash out, but for qualifying it was
warm and dry. After a strong 1st session the team continued to modify
the set-up for the Northamptonshire circuit. However on Tunstall’s
first flying lap with the ultra sticky qualifying tyre a mechanical
problem meant he was unable to complete the lap and improve his time,
which was still good enough for 11th on the grid.
“Of course it's frustrating not having the opportunity to improve,
especially when the times are so close. The third row is good enough
to have a strong race. My concern is that we have only the spare bike
to race which so far has only been used in the wet.”
Any concerns were quickly erased during the ten-minute race day morning
warm up session with Tunstall 5th fastest after posting a string of
times quicker than he had lapped all weekend.
In the race Tunstall was in the thick of the action dicing with Jay
Vincent, Simon Andrews and Frenchman Julien Da Costa. However the race
was red-flagged six laps in due to significant oil spill on the high
speed run into Abbey Hairpin.
The re-start saw Tom right on the rear wheel of Red Bull Honda rider
Eugene Laverty. As the pack of thirty-two riders streamed onto the back
straight, Laverty lost grip of his rear tyre. With bike and rider pitched
into the air Tunstall narrowly escaped getting caught up in the carnage.
The incident however cost Tunstall vital time and places, as he got
back up to speed. It was a lot worse for Matt Llewellyn who was directly
behind Tom and taken out of the race whilst avoiding the stricken machine.
Tunstall ended the first circuit of the shortened twelve lap race in
eighteenth. He was up to twelfth position four laps later, but the time
lost with the incident and passing the slower riders meant the deficit
was too large. And although he reduced the gap by nearly five seconds
to the rider ahead, the Yorkshire racer crossed the line 12th.
“After this morning's session we knew the package was working well,
but when someone crashes in front of you there is nothing you can do.
Unfortunately today’s result was out of my control. Some weekends
are harder than others, I know it’s a cliché but - That’s
Racing!”
The team's next outing is this weekend with the traditional August bank
holiday round at Cadwell Park near Louth in Lincolnshire.
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