East Racing rolled up to the Hampshire circuit, determined with high hopes after a brilliant 4th place at Brands Hatch, only to immediatly be put on the backfoot from the start of the meeting.

On the first flying lap of free practice James went down at Noble, A monsterously fast left hand bend. On the approach James was not at full speed, and was feeling his way into the corner. The bike had a small amount of movement between the front and rear on the lean over to the apex. When without warning the bike loaded up and shot into the curb on the inside of the bend, initially lowsiding then springing in the air, pulling James off the side of the bike, and dragging him alongside. Once the machine hit the grass it slid and pulled to the left dumping James in the middle of the track before crossing the small amount of run off on the left hand side and colliding with the Armco Wall, destroying the front end of the motorcycle.

The team would not get the bike together until Qualifying 2 which was the first session James realistically had on track. With standard forks drastically hindering the bike's performance and James lacking tracktime 33rd was the position salvaged from the session, meaning james would have to contest the Shootout race to qualify for the main race on sunday.

In the shootout, and after and after a restarted race James got to the front and held a comanding lead of 3.5 seconds over 5 laps before the race was once red flagged once more because of a faller and declared a result to put James 1st and 30th on the grid for the main race.

Further suspension setting were tried in warm up to get a comfortable setting for the race.

James got a good start and made up 10 places to 20th position in 2 laps, but on lap 4 another rider fell infront of James making him take avoiding action and went down himself.
James remounted to finish, and also set the 2nd fastest time of the raqce with a 1:20:029 showing his true pace on uncompetitive equipment.

James - " The freak accident in practice put us on the back foot from the start, it just wasn't ment to be at this round, and it is one to be forgotten, but this has not effected me, I showed good pace with a basic set up and borrowed parts. We will re group before Oulton Park and come back stronger than ever ".

James would like to Thank the following people for their help and support at Thruxton.
Stefan Pollard - For working non stop relentlessly to get the bike back together.

Phil Seton - For lending the parts needed to get the bike back on track, and John at Track Electronics for his help and advice.

Alan at R&G Racing for providing the protection equipment and his help.

Trackside Media - Main Sponsor for the meeting.


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