FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 Junior World Championship - Rory Skinner

Posted October 7, 2015

FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 Junior World Championship Debut, Navarra Spain

Rory, riding for Racing Steps Foundation, made his debut into the Junior World Championship at Navarra Circuit in Northern Spain onboard the FTR KTM Moto3 run by KRP’s Mark Keen.

With Friday practice going well, Rory was showing good form against the regular JWC riders, posting some very decent times. Learning all the way through the sessions, even after a small off due to a drop in temperature he bounced back to finish the day with a very positive mood within the Team.

Saturday Q1

The first session was at 10.50 and the temperatures were still down, the lap times were coming but it was in the final stages that Rory did his best times but in the final sector he ran slightly wide and lost 0.6 but still finished 16^th.

Saturday Q2

Rory went into the second qualifying session confident he would get a good grid position, he had been steadily progressing every session. New tyres were fitted and he went out to set some fast laps. He was on his best laps when each time he was held up by slower riders, finally finishing 21^st and on row 7 for his first Junior World Championship race.

Race day

It rained overnight and had stopped by warm up. The track however was still wet and a lot of the rubber that had been laid down had now been washed off.

Rory went out and from lap one was topping the timing until the last two laps eventually finishing 4^th in morning warm up.

The race

The race started well and by the end of lap one Rory had made up 4 places, by lap 2 another 2 places and by lap 3 he was in 15^th, over the next few laps he picked of the riders in front and by lap 8 was in 13^th position. Unfortunately at turn 14 Rory ran the washed kerb and lost the rear end, ending up in a fourth gear flat out high side. He landed, slid and then ran to his bike but it was too badly damaged to continue.

Even though he did not finish, he showed tremendous pace throughout and has come away with lots of positives in his riding. He is now looking forward to the next round at Jerez at the end of October.