Tim Hastings Racing #50

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Brands Hatch GP (4/5/6 April) - Blizzard trumps Twister

Twelve months on from his debut in the British 125GP Championship, Tim Hastings was looking forward to a successful start to his 2008 season at the full Brands GP circuit.

His first competitive ride in the UK for the KRP team started well with a solid 5th place in the first free practice session on Friday. The second session saw Tim finish the day in 6th spot, and a few technical changes saw him well set up for Saturday's qualifying.

Saturday's first qualifying went well, and Tim's best ever qualifying time of time of 1.37.848 put him in 2nd place for the majority of the session, but he then came into the pits with only 12 minutes to go with a slipping clutch. With no time to take any remedial action, the team could only hope that his early time would be good enough to stay near the front. As the clock ticked down and other riders upped the pace, Tim inevitably slipped back and ended the session in 8th place, securing a second row start on the provisional grid.

A new clutch was fitted for second qualifying, but by the Tim the 125s went out the forecasted rain had arrived and there was no opportunity to improve on the grid slot. Tim elected to go out anyway for a bit of wet weather practice, and promptly topped the time sheets on his first flying lap before going faster again on his second. By lap three, team boss Mark Keen had seen enough and, not wishing to risk a crash in the deteriorating conditions, signalled Tim into the pits to call it a day. After the 30 minute wet session had ended, Tim was still in 6th position, despite having completed just 3 flying laps.

Any optimism for race day disappeared as soon as the BSB paddock woke up to heavy snow, and before long it was lying up to 5 inches deep in places around the circuit. Despite the best efforts of all concerned, by 11am the inevitable announcement was made that the meeting was being postponed, and so the team will return to the Brands GP circuit once again for the weekend of 10th/11th May for what will now be the third round of this year's championship.

Given the clutch problem in qualifying, it is perhaps disappointing that the grid positions from this weekend will be retained for the rearranged date, but the team can be confident that Tim will be well set up for a podium challenge at the Kent circuit in May.

Tim and the rest of the KRP team can now look ahead to a new "first" round of this year's BSB series - to be held at Thruxton on 18th-20th April - a circuit where Tim went very well at his first visit to the track in 2007.

Read the race reports from other rounds.