EMRA round 1 report (Tom Weeden)

Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Emra 2nd March Round 1

After months of anticipation the first round of Emra finally arrived on the 2nd of March at Mallory Park. Tom Weeden had been anticipating this, his first race on the Honda RS 125 greatly.
Tom’s expectations were matched by the reality as he went out on the Sunday morning on a cold but dry track. The bike felt great and he really enjoyed it.
The timed practice session was combined with the Aprillia 125 bikes and this meant Tom couldn’t get a good lap together without having to over take back markers. Tom viewed these Aprillia’s as ‘ Mobile chicanes’ because they only really got in his way. Despite the crowded track he managed to qualify 8th out of 19 Honda 125’s! Tom felt quite impressed with this as most of the bikes in front of him weren’t standard, but due to the rules of EMRA it is all a mixed 125 class with open class 125’s and standard 125’s running together.

Tom was a bit worried about his racing starts on the 125, as he hadn’t practised them. But when the first race came he got off to an amazing start and was 4th into Gerrards Bend he kept this position until the exit of Edwina’s when the more powerful 125’s over took him. He was in 8th position as he passed the start/finish line for the first time but he was having a battle with the boy in 7th and managed to over take and pull away from him by the 3rd lap. By the time he had passed him though, the front pack was just breaking into Edwina’s as Tom exited Gerrards. The gap was too far to close and Tom decided to hold back and not crash, as he was clear of 8th place. He crossed the finish line in 7th.

Tom was very impressed with finishing 7th out of 16 finishers in his first ever race on the 125! Another signature on his Clubman licence as well!
In the second race Tom got another amazing start and was 4th into Gerrards for the first time. He was passed on the exit of Gerrards and managed to stay in 5th for 3 laps. But due to the spark plug breaking down the bike started to dramatically lose power and splutter when the bike went over 11,000 revs.
He tried as hard as he could but the bike just wouldn’t perform. He ended up finishing in 10th. He wasn’t as pleased with this result but that sort of thing happens in racing!

Next round again at Mallory for the first round of Thundersport GB and he will actually be racing against bikes that are standard so he may have a better chance of getting on the podium!