Round 3 and a new scene, James joins the Sondel Sport Racing Team after his pace and potential is noticed by Team manager Yonny Weeden.
After Thruxton, East Racing ( more importantly mechanic Stefan Pollard! ) had it’s work cut out, alot of work was needed to get the bike ready for Oulton Park, including a change to the front end. After the front end being wrote off at round 2 a new upgraded internal kit for the front forks was bought in, trading the older 25mm Ohlins Internals for the new 30mm Fork Cartridge Kit.
With other work needed doing to the bike, there was no time for testing between the meetings, leaving James having to get used to the new front end at the meeting.

Free Practice Group B
16th 1:46:277 – The bike handles terrible, and an error was made with the gearing, James said “ The bike was very hard to ride, all the weight was transferring to the rear and made it extremely hard to turn “ after this the suspension settings were completely changed for qualifying one.

Qualifying 1
10th 1:44:223 – With the gearing sorted and the suspension setup in the right direction, James is able to turn the bike faster and more stable, dramatically improving by 2 seconds. Easty – “ The gearing was alot better, the bike was pulling a higher top speed, and the bike handled well, it also ment less work on me as I arm pump from the bad suspension set up in practice “
James was still pushing wide so more suspension changes were made to help James hold a line for the second qualifying session.

Qualifying 2
8th 1:43:422
The changes that were made before the session helps James to meet the apexes. Easty goes nearly a second quicker. James – “ I’m able to bring the bike back alot easier to meet the apex’s now, but I’m still having to slow down too much on the entry to get to the apex’s “ Again more changes are made to try in Warm Up.

Warm Up
2nd 1:43:685 – James is a lot happier with the bike, and was only 2 tenths off his qualifying time taking it easy in the 8 minute warm up session. Easty – “ The bike was near on perfect, stable on the brakes, it was easy to turn and I could hold a line and get good grip on the exit. “ Overall Qualifying – 15th.

Race
After a shower of rain before the race there was confusion about tyre choice. The majority of the field went out on wets. James got a brilliant start, going from 15th on the grid to 9th by the first corner. Unfortunately the race was red flagged due to an incident involving a number of riders, and was after cancelled due to the race running up to the curfew cut off point.
The race will be re-scheduled and confirmed soon.
“ A big thank you to the Sondel Sport team for all their help and a good weekend, I look forward to more races to come. Also a massive Thank you to Stef my Mechanic and most of all my Dad, because without him I wouldn’t be racing. “

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