and took another race win. Previous
champion DSC rider Justin Price is still
the man to beat, however,and he took two
wins from the weekend, despiteTatton
taking the fastest lap of each race,
showing just how competitive this class
can be. Behind them, Dave Delaney on
the productionVespa took two podium
finishes, butanon finish in the second
race blotted his weekend. Stephen
Hamilton is also onaVespa small frame,
which is well suited to theLydden circuit.
He hadastrong weekend including a
podium, courtesy of Delaney’sDNF.
Behind them thelikes of PatWickham,
Shaun Nickells and Rob Fielder all had
solid weekends with little to choose
between them. Newcomers Hodgetts and
Offland are consistently improving and
achieving reliable finishes, and show that
racing can be enjoyed no matter where you
are finishing and is suchabuzz that you
are smiling all weekend. The second grid
of special class machines saw around 15
riders over the weekend with several riders
from the standard classes making the
most ofasecond entry for the opportunity
of more track time and race experience.
Currently,Group 6ist he second biggest
class and has always features some very
DIARYOFAROOKIE RACER
Racethree,East Fortune
There comesatimeinanyone'srace
careerwhere theyface theinevitability
of going outonawet track. Though
Justin has doneafew laps in damp
conditions, nothing wasgoing to prepare
him forrace threeof theseason.Held at
EastFortunein Sc otland on May18and
19, traditional British weatherof heavy
rain didn’t disappoint. Gonewasthe idea
of goingflat out now.Instead it wastime
forthe steeplearningcurveofmastering
wet conditions. This changesthings
dramatically, as it becomesamorelevel playingfield,withthe rider’sskillpushing the
machinetot he edge andtakingover from out-and-outengine power.Due to theweather
delaying events, therewas nopractice sessionand it was straightintoquali fying .The more
experiencedmembers of the SRPteamassured Justintohave beliefinh is wet-weather
tyres, whichwere beingused forthefirst time.He slowl ygot quicker over several lapsashe
gainedconfidenceint he tyres and didabest laptimeof1.42minutes.Bythe timeofthe
last raceon Sunday,this was down to 1.28 minutes. Notonly that, but heknockedalmost a
fullminuteoff thetotal race distancecomparedto the daybefore. Withstrongfinishes
movinghim up th egridaswellasg etting muchcloser to the frontrunners,it ha sn't gone
unnoticed by other racers in thepaddock.Quite rightlyso, as some nowsee him asareal
threat.From earlyseason testingto th is positionhasalready shown that Justin hasanatural
talent. The talk nowis just howfar he canget to by theend on th eseason.
Image courtesy of KRCPhotography
une
SRP line-up
Busy corner action
Fullflight
ExitHairy Hill
100 |SCOOTERING|AUGUST2019
