It was the opening weekend of the Pirelli National Sportbike Championship at Oulton Park for Rhys over the weekend.
Rhys started the weekend well in qualifying and practice, managing to secure a third place grid start for race one. After a decent start to the first race, solidifying 5th, Rhys got into a hefty crash going into one of the corners on the track, meaning the race was red flagged and stopped. Unfortunately, Rhys came out worse for wear with a broken finger and track burn.
Despite the injuries from race one, Rhys and his team were happy for race two to go ahead. After another decent start to race two, Rhys found himself in third but unfortunately ran out of fuel heading into the final corner. Despite this, Rhys managed to finish the race in sixth and earned valuable points to the standings.
This is what Rhys had to say on his opening round: “Race one didn’t quite go to plan. I was a few laps behind the safety car after an earlier crash and ended up in P5. I was then breaking into a corner before I found myself across the track and into the barrier, it was a pretty hefty crash and unfortunately the race was red flagged”.
Rhys then went on to talk about race two: “Starting 4th on the grid, I lost a place off the line, but I was working hard to try and close the gap down when the 2 riders in front went off track which put me in to third. Unfortunately, a miscalculation on fuel meant I ran out on the last corner. I tried everything to get myself over the line and managed to finish 6th place. I was pretty upset at the time but taking the positives, I finished the race as well as points on the board”.
We’ll next see Rhys in the Pirelli National Sportbike Championship on the 17th – 19th June at Donington Park.