Thruxton ROUND 8 BRITISH SUPERSTOCK 1000

The Lloyd and Jones PR Racing team arrived at Thruxton in a buoyant mode after some positive results. With Sam's fantastic 9th place finish at Brands.

The weather man on Friday didn’t manage to predict things correctly though and the day brought up a few mixed results.
Sam’s FP1 the weather held off. But the bike didn’t behave correctly for him and he struggled to find grip. With a time of  1.20.6  ending the session in 26th.
With different bike settings dialled in and Sam raring to go for FP2 the weather men’s prediction of blue sky’s didn’t materialise. Sam and nearly every rider on the grid managed their out lap before the heavens opened and put pay to the complete session.
 
 Saturday a complete session behind. Qualifying was always going to be tough. With more grip Sam managed to find another second from his Friday time 1.19.1. But unfortunately most of the other riders also managed to find more time. Ending Qualifying in 25th Sam knew he had a lot of work infront of him for the Saturday afternoon race.
Staring 25st on the grid at any circuit is never easy. But at Thruxton with its high speeds it was particularly difficult to get into the mix with the bikes at the sharp end of the grid.
4 laps in and Sam had managed to move up 5 places. But then he started to struggle to get the power down and his lack of grip saw him start to slip back lap by lap. Ending the race in 25th Sam knew he could get more from the bike on Sunday.
So after a long debriefing session and a few settings changed on the bike he knew he had another tuff day in front of him.
 
Sunday started with the blue sky’s promised from the day before. The 25th on the grid meant it was going to be another tough day. But after a reasonable start Sam started to pick off riders. Until Lap 4 when the race was red flagged due to bad crash. The race already being shorted to 14 laps instead of 16. Everybody knew it would then be time bound for a restart!
With no news on the crash. The team had waited for an hour before being informed that we would be back out for an 8 lap sprint race. The race restarted with Sam getting a much better start. He then proceded to pick off rider after rider. Only to run out of laps before finishing 20th. But he managed to set his fastest ever time for Thruxton with a 1.18.3 second lap. A positive going forward to Cadwell park.
Unfortunately after the race no one expected the sad new that the rider who crashed Mark Fincham had succumb to his injuries sustained in the crash and had passed away.
 
With this Sad news rounding off a challenging weekend. Sam commented “I love this bike, but I know we have some work to-do yet. But this is irrelevant with today’s sad news. I would like to pass on our condolences to Marks Family.”
 

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