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With
the season end fast approaching, Hardinge Ice Valley racer Tom Tunstall
went to Donington Park for the penultimate round of this year's British
Supersport Championship at the weekend. And after being forced to start
at the back of the grid Tunstall fought hard to get into the points!
The Yorkshireman qualified a respectable 13th on the grid and although
still plagued by a shoulder injury was in confident mood for the race:
"The position on the grid is good enough to get away well and push
for a strong result. The bike set-up is pretty good and we know which
direction to go to improve it further. And although my shoulder is giving
me a bit of grief I think the adrenalin will cancel out most of it."
With a dry morning warm up session the improvements were confirmed as
the sun shone on the 2.5mile track. However, twenty minutes before the
scheduled start of the Supersport race a strong shower passed over,
drenching the track.
Teams scrambled to get the machines prepared for the expected race conditions.
After receiving some questionable advice from the race organising staff,
the pit lane closed seconds before the team had finish preparing the
machine - preventing Tom joining the grid.
With the rules in the British series stating that a rider must start
from the back of the grid in these circumstances, Tunstall joined the
pack on the sighting lap and had to take the 40th and final position
for the start, on the 10th row!
As the mass of riders headed for the first corner Tom immediately started
cutting his way through the field. By the end of the opening lap he
had incredibly passed fifteen riders and dispatched five more over the
following two laps.
Just before the halfway point in the 18 lap race Tunstall had moved
the Hardinge Ice Valley Honda into 15th but with large gaps to the riders
in front was unable to make any further improvement.
After the race, an understandably frustrated Tunstall remarked: "Obviously
it was the result of the circumstances that meant I had to start from
the back of the grid. It didn’t help that officials told us we
had more time due to a delay, which turned out to be incorrect."
"But really as a team we will have to learn from today to make
sure we don't get caught out again. There's only so much I could have
done from that far back, I could only just see the start lights! From
then on it was damage limitation."
"Now I'm looking forward to the final round at Brands and to finish
the season with a strong result"
The final round of the British Superbike Championships takes place at
Brands Hatch in Kent over the weekend of the 8th & 9th of October.
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