FPW Racing experienced an eventful opening round of the 2018 HEL Performance British Motostar Championship on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, with results generally falling short of the teams expectations. The highlight was Storm Stacey’s third place in race one, he followed this up with eighth place in race two. Taz Taylor completed the races in fourteenth and ninth places respectively. 

Taz showed his experience and maturity during Friday morning practice, setting the second fastest time of the first session on his FPW Racing Kalex KTM, having started on wet weather tyres and switching to a cut slick rear tyre midway through the 30 minute session. Storm, carrying an injury from a training session settled for tenth position in the changeable conditions during opening free practice. 

The track surface had dried for the afternoon practice allowing all riders to push hard for respectable lap times. Both Storm and Taz put in their fastest laps at the end of the session to finish in sixth and tenth places. 

Both riders further improved their lap times during the single qualifying session on Saturday morning. Storm set a time good enough for the middle of the second row to start race one from fifth position. Taz, whilst setting personal best sector times on his final flying lap was unfortunate to suffer a fast crash at clearways resulting in substantial damage to the bike; and ended up in tenth place, and on row four of the grid. 

With the relatively short space of time between qualifying and the first race, the FPW Racing mechanics were up against the clock to ensure Taz’s bike was ready for the start of the race, literally making it with seconds to spare. 

However, on the sighting lap Taz felt an unfamiliar feeling with the engine and returned to pit lane. Once checked over, the bike was restarted but he had missed the cut-off time for the grid meaning he would have to start the race from pit lane. 

Storm made a good start to the 18 lap opening race and was initially involved in a five bike battle in the lead group. The leader began to edge clear on lap five leaving Storm to battle with three of his rivals in a closely fought group, with positions changing regularly. Storm and Ed Rendell were still exchanging places on the last lap with the Banks Racing rider holding a narrow advantage coming on to the start / finish straight, however, Storm managed to power ahead as they approached the chequered flag to take a well earned podium in third place. 

Taz having started dead last from pit lane did all he could to work his way through the tail end of the field towards mid-pack. From placing 35th at the end of lap one he progressed to 23rd by lap seven and finished in fourteenth position. 

Still not completely satisfied with Taz’s bike, the forks were taken to Ohlins for an overnight rebuild, and tested in morning warm up. Storm reported happy with his KTM and ready for the race on Sunday afternoon. 

Due to an oil spillage at Paddock Hill bend during the previous race, there was a delay to the start and the the race distance reduced by two laps. 

Both Storm and Taz made good starts from their grid positions, with Storm momentarily fighting for the lead, before slotting in to seventh place as the very tight lead group headed for Druids on the opening lap. He would then find himself in a race long duel with Jack Nixon, eventually finishing in eighth place. Taz did well to avoid an incident at Druids on the opening lap and found himself in a rather lonely ninth place. However, he bridged a gap of over two seconds to his team mate to finish 0.188 seconds behind retaining ninth place to salvage a few more points from his eventful first weekend back with FPW Racing. 

FPW Racing will now analyse the data and work hard to improve for the next round of the HEL Performance British Motostar Championship that takes place over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend 5-7 May at Oulton Park, Cheshire. 

Written & distributed for and on behalf of FPW Racing by: Martin Knighton - PR & Social Media