Bruce Wilson from Gipsey Bridge near Boston found the going tougher than expected at Thruxton in the opening round of the National Superstock 600 championship on Sunday when he powered the Motorcycle Racer/Team Inox Suzuki to 25th place after a rain affected qualifying session left him languishing down in 36th place.
But Bruce was undeterred and put 100% effort into his race to pull himself up to 25th place before a crash further up the field brought out the red flag to bring proceedings to an early end after 10 of the scheduled 14 laps.
On an unfamiliar track Wilson was encouraged when he completed his free practice in dry conditions in 24th position and relished the thought of qualifying in the rain that was promised for the next day. He completed 14 laps in the wet to post the 19th fastest time but despite posting times over two seconds faster in final qualifying, so did everyone else and he found himself down in 36th place for the start of Sunday’s season opener.
“I am not overjoyed by the result today,” said Bruce. “But considering where I started from its not too bad. It was pretty manic out there through the first few corners and I just couldn’t allow myself to give an inch. But I knew it was going to be a tough race for me and it was always going to be a tall order for me to progress into the points after starting from that far back. On the positive side, I did move up towards the front end of the group so that’s something.
“The lesson learned is that I need to qualify a lot better then I wont have to work like that in the first few laps and can set off after the leaders. Its been a huge learning curve for me to move up to this level but out of 54 starters this finish does put us in the top half of the field so that’s something to build on. I am determined to get there so will stick at it and eventually my results will improve.”
The next round is on more familiar territory at Oulton Park in Cheshire on May 6 where Wilson will not have to spend much of his practice time learning the circuit and can concentrate all his efforts into securing a higher grid position to start the race from nearer the front of the pack.
