6 April 2010 

Battling Weekend For Tunstall 

 Doodson Motorsport racer Tom Tunstall had to ride through the pain barrier at the British Superbike season curtain-raiser, but despite a tough start the Denby Dale ace insists his 2010 season is firmly on track.

Tunstall made the step up to the main British Superbike class in 2010 having ridden in the Privateer Cup competition previously backed by insurance experts – Doodson Broking Group.

Tunstall’s preparations for round one at Brands Hatch were disrupted by changeable weather and mechanical issues during practice; however issues were compounded for the 31-year-old rider when he suffered a high-speed tumble during qualifying.

“I was struggling with the bike chattering through some of the corners and I saw from my pit board I was only 0.1 from getting into qualifying phase two – It was one of those situations where there was a bit of rain coming down and I had to decided whether I wanted to pull in or give it a go and I decided to push on and give it a go, it just didn’t work out it was my mistake I tried too hard”.

Struggling with the after affects of the crash Tunstall had a further set back on race day when bike issues forced him to retire in the first race.

An impressive and hard fought performance in the second race saw Tunstall narrowly miss out on a points scoring finish having closed down a 5 second gap to South African Hudson Kennaugh. Missing out by only 0.15seconds at the flag, a battered Tunstall left the Kent circuit in a positive mood, adamant the future is bright for this year’s campaign.

“I really struggled to move around on the bike which is so important to control a Superbike, I had a session of physio before each race which helped but it was a case of gritting my teeth to be honest“

“We had a sensor fail in race one, the bike was misfiring and getting worse by the lap so I had to pull in, but the second race was really encouraging. My start wasn’t great but my pace got faster and I was lapping at top12 pace, which is our goal at this part of the season.

“It was frustrating to miss out on points, I just ran out of time in the end which was frustrating but after a hard weekend I'm very pleased with our pace..

Despite a mixed start at Brands Hatch the Denby Dale ace is adamant he can be back to top form at round two at Thruxton in two weeks time.

“It was a hard weekend with the crash and then the problems we had with the bike, the team did a cracking job just to get me back out on track” added Tunstall.

“But I am feeling really good about the rest of the season, we’ll now regroup, get the bike back up to spec, and I’m sure I’ll be fully fit for the next round - I am just looking forward to getting to Thruxton now.

The next round at Thruxton in Hampshire, takes place in over the weekend of the 16^th-18^th April.

 

photo courtesy of LondonBikers.com

photo courtesy of LondonBikers.com

photo courtesy of LondonBikers.com