With a difficult start to the season behind him, and memories of pole position in his first visit to Thruxton with the KRP team in 2008, Tim was confident of a good result at the fast and bumpy Hampshire circuit.
High temperatures and an excellent forecast ensured that lap times would be fast throughout the weekend, but Tim’s chances of success were dealt an immediate blow when his bike suffered a crank failure just six laps into Friday’s first free practice session. Unable to repair the bike in time for FP2, Tim was then forced to sit out the remainder of the day.
With the engine repaired for Saturday’s first qualifying session, Tim went back out on track only to be sidelined once again - this time by a faulty seal - after only eight laps, leaving him stranded in 13th place on the timesheets.
Despite missing out on a huge amount of track time, Tim gradually built up the pace during Q2 and timed his charge to the top of the timesheet to perfection, putting in a 1.22.313 qualifying lap right at the end of the session and taking pole by an impressive 0.4s.
After the technical problems of Friday and Saturday, Sunday’s race was only Tim’s second meaningful session of the weekend. From 1st on the grid he got a great start and - along with Brian Clark and team mate Martin Glossop - steadily pulled away from the chasing pack. For fourteen laps the three riders were rarely more than a few bike lengths apart, and the race was finally decided at the last chicane when Glossop slid out of contention and Clark took the chequered flag from Tim by a mere 8/100ths of a second.
Having a previous fastest lap of 1.23.4 around Thruxton, it is a measure of Tim’s progress that he finished Sunday’s race with a best lap time of 1.21.9! After what proved to be a hugely challenging weekend, his impressive second place finish sees Tim close the gap on the leaders in the Championship, while first spot in the Cup race means he now leads the Cup competition by a healthy 18 points.
Team Twister would like to extend special thanks to the winners of the draw for a pair weekend passes to the Thruxton event - Mick and Andrew Simms - for attending and being a part of our success. Get well soon also to two of Tim's supporters, Rick Gibson and Matt Clifford, both of whom are recovering after operations. Thanks also to Mark Keen of KRP who returned to his workshop on Friday night to machine and rebuild Tim's engine before returning to the circuit and working into the small hours of Saturday morning to complete the work, and further thanks to Jennifer and Geoff at Planet Knox for arranging a replacement back protector for Tim at such short notice.
Also, a very warm "welcome on board" to Duncan Kellett, who after observing Tim's performances over the past few seasons, and reacting to Team Twister's "Powered by Fans" campaign, has made a generous donation to Tim's racing fund and has expressed a keen interest in remaining involved with Tim's career for the next few years. The "Powered by Fans" campaign is still live and we invite like minded race fans to get in touch, either via our website or in person at any of the remaining races.
.............................................................................
WEll done once again Tim and team
