Rounds 10 and 11 of the Dunlop Aprilia Superteens Championship visited Rockingham Motor Speedway in the heart of Northamptonshire over a blisteringly hot weekend!
Friday saw Neil Hodgson, Rory’s Bennetts appointed mentor come to the circuit and spend the day with Rory, helping him fine tune his skills in learning the demanding Rockingham sections to build up a fast lap. By the end of the days practice Rory was on the pace and running very decent times for his first outing.
Saturday qualifying went well with Rory heading the pack and putting his Aprilia RS125 machine on pole position for the two Saturday races.
Race 1 was a three way battle for a few laps when Rory and the second place rider made a break and pulled away from the rest of the persuing pack. With track temperatures reaching 45 degrees, tyres started to overheat and Rory was experiencing alot of tyre movement. However he dealt with the difficult conditions and came home in first place over the line breaking the existing lap record by 0.3 seconds.
Race 2 was another close race with first and second placed riders pulling a decent lead over the rest of the field. Rory took his second win at Rockingham by only 0.088 seconds and although he had ridden faster in the 2nd race, knocking 0.7 off the lap record, he was pipped by second places lap time by 0.2 seconds which knocked him back to second on the grid for Sundays two races.
Sunday Race 1 started well with Rory taking an early lead off the line and as per Saturdays races had a race long battle with the pole setter who showed his wheel at several corners and occasionally got the better of Rory into the tight infield section only for Rory to take the lead back on the brakes into the next corner. This was close racing at it’s very best in Superteens with both riders showing great regard and respect for each other! By the final lap as Rory entered the 3rd last corner he missed a gear and 2nd place got through and held the lead to the line taking a win at his home track.
Sunday Race 2 and equipped with new rubber and knee sliders Rory formed up on the grid with only one thing on his mind! The lights went out and Rory rocketed off the line, by lap one he had opened up a 1 second lead, lap 2….2.5sec, lap 3….4.0 and so on……. riding a flawless race on every lap being the only rider from lap three consistently on lap record pace at 1min 35 secs each lap ’til the chequered flag where he finished in front by 7.8 seconds.
Overall a really fantastic weekend at Rockingham learning another great new track, spending time with Neil Hodgson and increasing his championship lead to 127 points.
Rory would like to thank all of his sponsors for their continued support. Please take a look at their profiles in the sponsor section of the website.
All Rory’s Dunlop Aprilia Superteens races can be viewed here: http://www.thundersportgb.com/index.php/i-player