Yaxley motorcycle racer, Rob Hoyles rode to three emphatic race wins to keep his Thundersport GB 600 title hopes alive at Anglesey last weekend.
Running on a limited budget, Rob has had his work cut out to match the pace of former British championship contender Gary May and his professionally run and well-funded Pro-Bike team.
With neither rider having taken to the recently revamped North Wales circuit before, the playing field was levelled in terms of machine set-up and data.
Hoyles worked hard at getting his Yamaha R6 set-up throughout the Friday practice, achieving respectable lap times as he steadily made progress before qualifying second behind the dominant May.
However, in Saturday’s Superpole race things quickly turned around. Hoyles got his Yamaha R6 off the line perfectly and quickly dropped his lap times by a second, leading from start to finish with May unable to maintain the pace as he was beaten to the line by local rider, Chris Mort, while Hoyles went on to take the race win by a decisive nine seconds.
But the best was yet to come. In the first of Sunday’s races, having made a few changes to the set-up of his bike, Hoyles again led from the lights to the flag, consistently posting laps underneath the lap record. May actually took the lap record on lap three chasing Hoyles down but after several near crashes, was forced to back off, this time edging out Mort but with Hoyles consistently lapping in the nines, extending his lead and taking the win by a massive 27 seconds.
For the final race, it looked as though May was anxious to wrap up the championship. Having ditched his favoured Dunlop tyres to use the same Pirelli tyres as Hoyles, the 32-year-old from Newbury seemed focused for the win. Hoyles got his usual rocket start before pulling a gap on a determined May. On the second lap however, the red flags came out after May crashed heavily, high-siding his Yamaha out of the first corner.
The race was restarted, and Hoyles cruised to his third victory of the weekend ahead of a delighted Chris Mort and Irishman, Cliffy Hamilton.
“It’s been an absolutely perfect weekend” Rob smiled. “The circuit is fantastic with a real variety of difficult corners with different cambers. To get on lap record pace at my first visit is very satisfying, particularly now that I’ve closed the gap back down on May to just 29 points. The championship is still his to lose though, as even if I win the remaining races he only needs to finish third in each race to take the title. But things can happen in racing as we’ve just seen, so I just need to push as hard as I can and see what happens.”
“In only my third year of racing, to have beaten someone of Gary’s calibre and to have taken seven wins and to be rarely off the podium both here and in the MRO championships is a real confidence boost. I just dearly hope that I can get some financial backing so that I can continue to mix it with the fast guys next year.”
Rob’s next outing is at Donington Park on the 18th of October, followed by the championship decider at Mallory Park a day later.
Photo Credit: PLJ Photography
