Tim Hastings Racing #50

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Round 5 - Snetterton (18/19/20 May)

An impressive race performance from a lowly grid slot brought Tim Hastings a hard fought fifth consecutive points finish in the 125GP Cup at Snetterton.

Despite having previously raced at the fast and bumpy Norfolk circuit, this proved to be a difficult weekend right from the start. An early off at the fast Bomb Hole corner in first practice left both Tim and the Pete Banks Racing Honda largely undamaged, but Tim struggled to get back up to speed throughout Friday's two practice sessions and finished down in 40th place.

Tim remained off the pace during Saturday qualifying and, as the clock ticked down in the 2nd session, it looked as if not reaching race day was a real possibility for the first time in the season. However, Tim dug deep in the final few laps of qualifying and ended the session making the grid in 39th place. Although a 10th row start was disappointing in comparison to previous rounds, the team knew that a strong race could still turn the weekend around.

A problem in the Sunday morning warm up required an engine strip down and added more drama to the weekend, but by the time the 125 riders set off on their green flag lap, Tim was confident that the bike was on song and that he could put in a strong performance.

Another excellent start took Tim up to 29th place after the first lap and he continued to make good progress until he joined a group of four other riders battling for 20th position. As in many of the previous rounds, this battle continued for most of the race and Tim fought hard as the five constantly swapped places. A coming together at Coram almost ended in disaster, but Tim kept the bike upright and held his place. On the last lap he was leading the group in 20th when the yellow - then red - flags came out, securing his position and with it an 8th place finish in the Cup competition.

Despite the troubles in qualifying, Tim's fight through half the field was undoubtedly one of his best races of the season. However, his satisfaction with the final result was tempered by the news that the red flag incident had left team mate Michael Hill with a serious back injury that will rule him out of the next few rounds.

Team Twister sends Michael best wishes for a fast and full recovery, and now looks forward to Tim's first visit to Mondello Park in Ireland for Round 6 over the weekend of 15-17 June.

Read the race reports from previous rounds.