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Alex Gault 2005 - British Championship Round 2 - Thruxton April 2005.........................................Back To Index
We always knew this would be a difficult round, but we certainly did not foresee how bad it would turn out to be and it is one of them we'd really rather forget.
Alex has never been to Thruxton before which is reputed to be the fastest track in Britain . Under orders to take things easy; the first session well fairly well doing 10 laps of the 2.3 mile circuit before coming in to make some adjustments.
In the second session after only 3 laps the engine blew-up throwing Alex from the bike before it destroyed itself, Alex was not badly hurt, a sprained ankle and badly shaken by this fall at “Cobb” luckily one of the slowest parts of the track.
Thanks to Geoff Symons for the photo & the comment from Vemar Helmets
“He saved the helmet……. Nice Boy!
After getting the all clear from the doctor on the Saturday morning. Alex took to the track for timed qualifying the problems with the engine management system were still there and Alex pulled of the track after only 7 laps luckily without damaging anything else as we had spent the next three months budget repairing the bike from yesterdays tumble.
Qualifying didn't go well, out in the second session and the bike stopped after only half a lap, so the mornings qualifying time would stand, this seen Alex out of the race on Sunday as his time from the morning session was only good enough for 45th place for only 44 slots on the grid.
Luckily for us, a retirement further up the grid let him slip onto the last spot on the grid for the race.
In Sunday Morning warm up despite lack of track time and the problems surrounding the weekend, Alex started to show promise and we were hopeful he could pull something out of the bag in the race.
I can't remember the last time, if ever; I have seen Alex on the back row of a grid but that's how things go some times.
From the start he managed to cut his way through the pack but then started to slow, he had to retire on lap 7, the difficulty with the engine management system was getting worse and due to the nature of the problem it was getting dangerous to continue.
So all in all it looks like we are starting to pay the price from being under funded, under prepared & under equipped.
A change of direction is called for, we do not go racing to qualify last on a grid by default or retire from races through no fault of our own.
Let's see if we can rise to the challenge at round 3 on the 22/23/24 th of April at Mallory Park .
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