BSB Silverstone - Tim Hastings Stock 600

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Auld Twister
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BSB Silverstone - Tim Hastings Stock 600

Post by Auld Twister »

With the final race of this year’s BSB series approaching, Team Twister can look back on a Silverstone round that saw Tim Hastings take his second points scoring finish of the season, and also underlined the progress that has been made throughout his debut year on the Team Green ZX6R.

Silverstone promised to be a good weekend, as the new track is the kind of fast flowing circuit that Tim generally likes. The weather however was mixed all weekend - rain, wind and sun - so with a dry qualifying forecast for Saturday, Friday’s practice and first qualifying session were all about simply spending time on a wet track and learning how the 600 behaves in these conditions. Tim is now looking increasingly comfortable and is gaining in confidence in the wet.

Reverting to dry settings and knowing that the single dry session on Saturday would determine the grid, Tim was quickly up to speed and soon eclipsed his previous personal best lap time of 2.19.154 - set in practise for the earlier WSBK round (the Oulton Park re-run). As planned, the team brought Tim in for a new rear tyre after 10 minutes, but when Tim went back out he couldn't find clear track and had dropped down the order to P26 as the clock counted down. He crossed the line to start his final qualifying lap with just 10 seconds of the session left. The team was then glued to the monitor as Tim set a personal best time for sector one, repeated the feat in sector two and then completed a superbly judged lap, moving up 12 places as he set a new personal best time of 2.17.5 to secure a fourth row start in P14.

The team still had a bit of work to do though, as they later found out Tim's front forks were still too stiffly sprung, despite softening the settings as much as possible during the session. Thanks to Gearlink Kawasaki for their advice and help in dealing with this issue.

Tim tested the new settings in the Sunday morning warm up session and declared that the front end was much better and gave him the confidence to push harder. In the race Tim got away well but again lost several places in the first turn, due simply to being over cautious, completing lap one in P18 and then dropping to P20 by the end of lap three. Tim then settled into a very decent and consistent race pace and managed to get himself back into a point scoring position, in P15.
At the start the final lap, Tim had caught the two riders battling for 14th and 13th and coming out of the final corner managed to pass for P14 and two championship points. It was a hard earned two points and a race that Tim learned a great deal from, most importantly the need not to concede so many places off the start!

Team Twister now looks forward to this weekend’s final round of the season at Oulton Park, a circuit that Tim loves to race at, and where he is determined to do well and give himself an 18th birthday - on 9th October - to remember!

Continued thanks are also due to the Gearlink Kawasaki team for all their efforts over the course of the weekend, as well as sponsors Gibsons, Evadne, TCX boots, Shark Helmets, MCS Scotland, Murray's Motorcycles, Knox, NGK and Jon Jessop Photography.

Thanks also to all Tim’s personal backers for their continued support and encouragement - Team Twister couldn't go racing without your support. Tim Twister is pleased to reward all sponsors, supporters and friends with this points scoring ride - and thanks you all for sticking by the team in these very tough and trying times.
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