Moto Rapido finishes British Superbike series on a high!
A little speed bump in the middle with our rider change but it has worked out to be perfect.
Tommy and the team have worked so well together with the 7 rounds we had, almost making the ‘Showdown’ and ending the season in the highest position possible being 7th and taking the ‘Riders Cup’.
Being the season finale of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship there are always three races.
Race 1 the sun was glorious and we qualified Sixth but crashed out of the race in the early stages, we thought we were out of contention for 7th place finish at this point as Tommy would need to work miracles and the planets align.
Sunday came and the heavens opened, we had no wet practice till that morning but I knew the team had the skills to make this bike work well around the Brands Hatch GP circuit. After crashing out of race one we started Race 2 on the third row in P9, Tommy quickly made his way to the front of the pack and pulled away with the series leader Leon Haslam and Honda’s Jason O’halloran before snatching 2nd place, some well-deserved points and plenty of TV time.
Race 3 and Tommy was after a win! He knew he had to be 11 points clear of O’halloran to win the Riders Cup and that was going to be tough after there battle in race 2, Tommy Started strong yet again but Jason was hot on his tail.
As the race developed Richard Copper pulled out in the lead, Tommy in second and Leon Haslam some 12 seconds behind him…….O’halloran finishing in P8 giving us the points we needed for the Riders Cup and another double podium finish for the team.
Thomas Strudwick clinched 2nd in the Hel Performance Moto3 Championship after a good race on the Saturday, he was desperate to finish the season by winning a race but he worked it right and scored enough points to take the trophy then he could push on Sunday in Race 2….unfortunately after a few laps and Thomas pushing his way to the front he crashed out.
Thomas has now finished his 2 year apprenticeship with the team and is time to move on to the next chapter in his career, we are so proud of him and we will continue to support him in anyway we can and he will always be part of the Moto Rapido family.
