Tim "Twister" Hastings - 2008

[twister]

After a difficult Friday and Saturday, Timmy pulled one outa the bag on raceday and bagged his 3rd consecutive overall podium finish with a well deserved 3rd place. (2nd in Cup) Also bagged the fastest lap time of the weekend which came in the second practise session on Friday, 54.1 seconds

A technical problem meant Timmy's first practise session on Friday lasted only one lap. In the second session on Friday he goes out and posts the fastest time mentioned above, which beats his previous best, set in at last year's BSB, of 55.6 seconds.

Saturday qualifying is wet and Tim is under instruction not to push until the last 5 minutes.......With 5 minutes remaining, Tim sets personal best times in sectors one and two only for the red flags to come out and put and end to the session, oh well ----P10 the result.
In the second session, Tim is going well before losing his left handlebar grip at the bottom of Duffus, which comes off in his hand - undeterred he soldiers on and is pole at one point before coming in with a technical problem with 2mins to go (58 second laps in the rain)--- P8 and a second row start.

Sunday warm up and before Tim completes his first lap, the heavens open!! Unfazed, Tim continues to lap the circuit in the pissing rain, on SLICKS!!!
He goes 2nd fastest

Race start goes well and Tim is 5th after the first lap. The race is then red flagged on lap two and all the bikes come into pit lane. At the re-start Tim again gets away well and and is 3rd after lap one, the rest is pretty much a blurr until the second last lap and Tim gets a backmarker going into the chicane and the first two are gone.............All things considered, a podium finish was a great result....Of to Cadwell in little under a fornight and we'll see how we get on there....

[Lynners]

Well done Twister and good luck for Cadwell

Think we need to start getting your autograph now

[RK6]

Well played!

All the best for Cadwell dude

[Coddy]

As with the 2 posts above, yer doing well loon.

Keep it going.

[IZINBARD]

Well done Tim, slicks in the wet

But more than anything else kiddo, 1st in the Cup on points, Woooo Hoooo That WILL get you noticed.

Great race report Tony, cheers

[Akrapovic]

Nice one Tim, keep up the good work.

[fazermal]

Well done Tim keep up the good work for the rest of the season

[IZINBARD]

Tim has a tough fight ahead of him, as there are 100 points left in the championship, Tim's recent form is equal to the guy who is currently running second (guy in second missed 2 races or had DNF's, he did better than Tim at the start of the season, but over the last 3 races Tim has picked up his game and the are fairly evenly matched.) Tim has a 16 point lead over him with 4 races to go, nail biting stuff and it's going to be very close.

[Lynners]

TIIIIMAAAAAAAYYYYY

Oops sorry, wrong thread

[IZINBARD]

Best of luck this weekend Tim.

[Zax]

Best of luck Tim ...

Keep up the good work I am looking forward to your next race report .

[twister]

Thanks all for your messages of support and encouragement Back home after an eventful weekend.........

Previous best at Cadwell, at last year's BSB event, was 1.39.221 (BSB '07)

FP1 is dry and Tim is out on Knockhills race tyres and the idea is to get a feel for the place and check settings etc... session ends with Tim in P4 with a time of 1.37.986 Immediate improvement on last years times and Tim's happy with the bike the way it is.

FP2 is also dry and Tim had no issues with grip so the old tyres are left on. He looks good and is starting to push, very committed through the woodland section, (Woodland section is the last sector), and is devastatingly quick through sector one. Session ends with Tim is P3 and a new personal best of
1.36.027 He's happy with the session, and the bike, but is now saying the rear is starting to slide.

Q1 is proper wet, raining really hard. With the forecast for dry, sunny conditions I question the point of even going out at all. Tim speaks to the team boss who says it is probably worth doing a few laps and getting a time in, just in case something happens and we cant do Q2.
Things are looking good, Tim's doing the sensible thing and circulating at about the P10 'ish place. It's still p'ing down and with only a few minutes to go, Tim goes P3..... And then gets it in his head that he can top the time sheets....On his next lap, sector one goes green, (personal best time), and then we get the message on the monitor,
"#50 crashed at Gooseneck - rider ok"

The bike is not too badly damaged, considering, and the team set about getting her fixed up. We take Tim to get all the mud washed of his leathers, boots etc.. and get set for Q2
Q2 is as forecast, sunny and dry - which has you wondering what Q1 was all about. Tim just doesn't look confident at all, after watching him at all his races since starting on the minimoto, I can tell. Tim ends the session in P11, 1.4 seconds slower than his times in free practise
Tim says he just couldn't get a good feeling with the bike, felt like the front wanted to tuck and then the rear wanted to break loose when he got on the pwr
I think the morning crash just got the better of his nerves, temporarily....

Still, P11 is what we had to work with and that was that. Because Cadwell start / finish is so very narrow, it was decided that all classes would start in rows of three, instead of the usual number of four. This meant that while P11 would normally put you on the third row of the grid, for this race Tim would start from the middle of the fourth row...

Monday morning warm up goes well....The team did alter the preload on the rear shock and Tim ends the short session in P4 and is grinning like the preverbial Chessire cat! Tim reports that the bike feels transformed.

Our race is early, 12:40, and the Twister is up for it! The start is very good but Tim finds himself blocked into turn one and has to wait it out before making any silly moves as the field are still very tighly bunched. Into the back part of the track and Tim gets into 5th and sets about closing the gap to the 4th placed rider. In a lap he's closed down the deficit, but cant find a way past. Timmy, clearly the faster rider, is now being held up and this allows the rest of the field to close in, and the leaders to dissapear into the distance. A little bit of "history" exists between these two riders and every time Tim makes the pass, the guy comes back on the brakes, slowing the laptimes down and letting he ensuing pack get their claws in. Inevitably, the following riders pass and Tim is bumped back to P7. Tim then gets it together and passes the chap who was holding him up, into turn one, around the outside!!
(Turn one is blindingly fast, taken by most in the GP125 class, in 6th), Tim drops a gear and keeps it pinned and maintains the drive required for the uphill left hander. Onto the back part of the circuit and Tim passes for 5th on sheer drive and sets about catching team mate, Paul Jordan for 4th. Again, catching is one thing, passing is another, made all the more difficult at the tight and twisty Cadwell Park. A fierce battle ensues between the two with a few heart-stopping moments in between. But Tim holds firm, to hold on to 4th across the line, having taken 4 seconds out of the rider in third in the last three laps.
4th overall the result, 2nd in the Cup, now takes Tim to joint 2nd in the overall standings and 11 points in the lead in the Cup standings.

Given our grid position of 11th, 4th place finish was an excellent result and I can't wait to watch it all again on Eurosport2 this coming Thursday. Tim's best lap is a 1.35.590 a full 3.6 seconds faster than his previous best. His pace was fast enough to challenge for the podium had we had a better qualifying session, which is encouraging.
Next up is Croft, which is a circuit Tim loves...........

[IZINBARD]

Great write up Tony Sky+'ed the race for Thursday, Will be at Cadewll for a long weekend so I'll see it when I get back.

[Lynners]

What time....someone call and remind me tonight please

[twister]

What time....someone call and remind me tonight please

it's on British Eurosport2, at 22h30, Thursday 28/08/08

[meepmeep]

From BS site.
Vote for Tim

Hey all.....

We need your vote

Follow this link, http://forum.britishsuperbike.co.uk/...ic.php?t=12435

It's on the BSB forum, where you can vote for, amongst other things, best up and coming rider (Including 125's)....You either PM your vote(s) to the poster or by email (addy is in the post)...

And then get as many folk as you know to do the same......
__________________
http://www.timhastingsracing.co.uk
2008 British GP125 ACU Academy Cup Champion
2006 MMC F125 Open Champion
2006 EMRA F125 Champion

vote for tim

[Gazza]

Link not working for me

[meepmeep]

Thanks Gazza

Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian) is really needing to go bug hunting in here

Here it is: vote for tim