Tim Hastings Racing #50

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Croft – 10/11/12 August

Falkirk Teenager Tim Hastings completed a weekend of mixed fortunes with a strong race performance to take a solid 8th place finish in the latest round of British 125GP Cup at Croft.

Having raced there only two weeks prior to the 10th round of the BSB series, Tim was confident of a good race set up on the Pete Banks Racing Honda, but his last visit had also left him with a painful knee injury as a result of a high speed crash at the Esses section of the fast North Yorkshire circuit.

Unlike most race weekends, local noise restrictions at Croft meant that as well as the two free practice outings, the first qualifying session for the 125s was also held on the Friday afternoon. Tim began the day steadily - running in a new engine on the way to 19th overall in the morning session, and then followed this with a 17th place (still on worn tyres) in 2nd practice. The dry sunny conditions continued into the afternoon qualifying, and Tim was immediately on the pace, running as high as 7th in the first few laps. His session ended abruptly however on only his fifth circuit as he highsided coming out of the tight hairpin section and landed heavily, damaging his shoulder.

X-rays confirmed no breaks - and the pain in his shoulder helped Tim forget about his injured knee - but by the end of Q1 he had slipped back to 30th place and was facing a disappointing 8th row start if indeed he was able to race.

A very sore Tim was cleared to ride by circuit medics on the Saturday and, despite being unable to brake as late into corners as he would have hoped, he managed to put in a solid 15 lap 2nd qualifying session. Unfortunately the rest of the 125 pack also picked up the pace, and Tim slipped back to 31st position in combined qualifying - despite having taken another full second off his best Friday time.

As so often this season it looked as if race day might be blighted by poor weather, but Croft stayed largely dry throughout the BSB programme and by the time the 125s took to the track for the last race of the afternoon, the sun was shining and the track was warm and dry.

Starting from so far back on the grid Tim needed an impressive getaway in order to have any chance of making an impression in the race. He duly delivered with an absolute flyer of a start and made his way through the two rows in front of him on the long run up to the first right hander at the end of the start-finish straight. Having moved from 31st to 22nd by the end of the first lap, Tim continued to make steady progress and picked up a further couple of places before the pack was again closed up when the safety car was brought out.

As the safety car pulled in and racing resumed, Tim tried hard to keep pace with a frantic tussle for 7th-15th positions, but instead found himself dropping back into a hard-fought battle for 16th with returning team-mate Michael Hill and Sam Shorrock. Tim bravely kept his place until two laps from home when first Sam then Michael slipped past, and he had to settle for 18th overall and an 8th place finish in the Cup.

With so few qualifying laps completed, Friday's crash mean that the team was always on the back foot for the rest of the weekend, but although the result wasn't what had been hoped for, considering Tim’s injuries and his grid position, it turned out to be a pretty successful race. Team Twister now looks forward to the 11th round of the BSB series at Cadwell Park on Bank Holiday Monday - the 27th of August.

Read the race reports from previous rounds.