RYAN Hitchcock from Melksham achieved his best result of 4th place on a Moto3 machine at Oulton Park last time out, although it turned out to be a weekend of mixed fortunes for the 13-year-old.
The British Talent Cup season, the standard Moto3 class of British Superbikes, finally got underway at the Cheshire circuit. It has been a long wait since the end of the 2020 season and even the last pre-season test was all the way back at Snetterton in early May.
This season the British Talent Cup riders have three free practice sessions before qualifying. The first two were on the Friday 25th June. In FP1 Ryan posted a 1:56.975 placing him 13th but his real objective was to get comfortable on the moto3 once more and familiarize himself with the Cheshire circuit.
The second free practice session proved much more difficult. The track was wet and Ryan struggled to feel confident on his Wilson Racing Moto3 machine. Despite the difficulties of FP2, he was upbeat after his 1:56.270 left him close to the top ten in FP3.
Just two and a half hours after the final practice session on the Saturday morning Ryan was back on track for the 30 minute all important qualifying session. Track conditions were good and his 1:52.808 put him 12th on the grid for the first race of the weekend.
The British Talent Cup riders normally compete in a 14-lap race around the 2.7 mile Oulton Park circuit which is the same length of race as the full British Superbikes riders. However, after the original race had to be red-flagged due to an accident, the re-started race was then reduced to ten laps. Starting from the original grid positions Ryan made up one position on the first lap. He then pushed on and got into the group of riders who were all battling for fifth place. On lap seven he slipped up into 7th position and just one lap later had overtaken two more riders and was running in a superb fifth place. Not content he made a move late in the final lap, at Lodge Corner to slip into fourth position for his best ever result in the British Talent Cup.
After his superb race one on Saturday, Ryan started Sunday’s race from fourth on the grid. In a competitive field he didn’t get away as well as he would have liked but managed to settle in the group battling for fifth place. The three riders were separated by only tenths of a second lap after lap. On lap eleven he ran wide into Hizzy’s chicane and unfortunately crashed out of the race but thankfully he was able to stand up and walk away from the incident.
Ryan said, “It was great to get back on my Wilson racing Moto3 bike. It seems ages since we were racing. I struggled a bit in the wet and in qualifying but it all worked well in the first race. Fourth place is my best result in the British talent Cup so far. Then I made a small mistake in the second race as I was trying to chase the two riders in front. Thankfully I am just bruised so now I am looking forward to the next round at Knockhill.
“I would like to say a big thank you to Gary at Wilson Racing for preparing the bike and also all my sponsors who keep me racing.”
Next up is the British Talent Cup at Knockhill on the 10th to 11th July.
Photo: Bonnie Lane
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