The brand Hatch meeting was another tough weekend of battling for TTC, and an emotional end to a great first season.
We’ve done it! We’ve nailed a full season of racing in one of the most challenging domestic championships there is. Along the way we’ve picked up numerous top-tens and two podiums – a certain success for our debut year!
But this weekend at Brands didn’t go exactly to plan and yet again the weather added another element to try to accommodate. So despite some good riding from James Rispoli, we didn’t get back on the podium for the three-in-a-row we had so desired.
“We usually have some bad luck in the beginning of the weekend then finish really strong…
This weekend we started off showing what the last two podiums meant and we were on the pace in the dry. Then we had our bad luck later in the weekend,” said James.
Saturday’s rollercoaster
Saturday’s qualifying went really well and resulted in a season’s best 4th place for James, and a high for Team Traction Control. With changing weather conditions, Sprint Race set-up was a gamble – and this time it didn’t pay off for us.
The wrong decision was made and that became clear to see as the race unfolded: while the track was damp James pushed the Yamaha R6 up to 2nd place, but as the laps went by James was struggling with the set-up and ended up finishing 13th.
The team were understandably deflated that evening – not only because we didn’t get the result we’d hoped for in this race, but also due to these set-up issues, James’ best lap time was only enough to earn a grid place of 19th for Sunday’s feature race.
Signing off on Sunday
To get a result from Sunday’s race was going to need a great start to get battling into the top 10… But what happened in reality was that we ended the first lap down in the late 20’s – not ideal.
Then, with some great battling, pace and the boy Rispoli backing it into corners at speed we got up to 12th position. And then, just like that, it was all over – the bike was pulled into the garage with a clutch issue.
It was not the weekend we had planned and certainly wasn’t how we wanted to end the season, but as everyone at TTC is quickly learning, this is racing!