The eighth round of the Motul British Motostar Championship was postponed due to un-raceable conditions, after dismal weather on race day at Cadwell Park on Bank Holiday Monday, with Brad taking his fourth pole position of the season.
With
only a short turn around for Brad after his impressive exploits in the Red Bull
MotoGP Rookies Cup at Brno last weekend, he turned his attentions North, and to
the woodland circuit of Cadwell Park, in the heart of the Lincolnshire
countryside in search of his third win of the British season.
The
weekend kicked off with Brad being the fastest rider on circuit by 1.4 seconds
in the second free practice session, after discovering a problem in FP1 when he only completed five laps but
still posted a good enough time to place him in seventh.
Come
qualifying day, the sun shone over the 2.1 mile woodland circuit and Brad
headed into the two sessions confident of achieving pole position, from the off
Brad was hot on the pace and soon he found himself in first place by two tenths
of a second, after posting a 1:34.2 lap.
Qualifying
two provided a mixed bag of fortunes for the youngster, after chipping away at
his time set in Q1, he knocked off eight tenths to post a 1:33.671 lap, meaning
he would start from pole for the race on Monday. Looking
to go even quicker on his next lap Brad headed into ‘Charley’s’ bend ten miles
an hour faster, ran onto the grass and subsequently dropped the bike, cutting
his session short and leaving his team with work to do to repair the bike.
Monday
race day arrived and so did the
cold weather along with showers of rain, but that didn’t dampen spirits. Morning warm up saw
Brad top the timesheets again and sent him into the 12 lap race confident of a
good result.
After
a day filled with light drizzle around the circuit the Motostars headed out
onto circuit and the rain become heavier, and after the
two sighting laps, the event organisers took the decision to cancel the race due to the standing
water. Two races will now be run at the next round at
Donington Park in September.
A
disappointed Brad had this to say after the cancelled race: “The weekend went
really well, all through the weekend we felt really strong and we ended up
qualifying P1 by 0.1 of a second so that was really close.
“We
we’re hoping for a dry race but we knew it was going to be wet and we were
ready for that, but by the time
we got to the race it was cancelled.”
Brad
now has just one week to regroup before heading to Silverstone for the 10th round of the Red
Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, a round in which Brad is feeling the pressure
already. “It’s a little bit more pressure with it being my home race but we’re
going to do our best and aim for a couple of podiums.”
Photography By: Bonnie Lane
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