Rhys was back out on the track over the weekend, ready for round 8 of the Pirelli National Sportbike Championship. With only 3 rounds left to go in the championship, it was a good chance for Rhys to possibly make a late dash to break into the top 5. Rhys had a good finish last time out at Oulton back in round 1, coming in with a 6th-place finish.
Rhys stayed consistent through all 3 free practice sessions, finishing in 7th, 10th, and 9th, but improving his time and reducing the gap to the leader in every session. Rhys also finished 9th in qualifying, posting a similar time to his practice sessions and still remaining within 2 seconds of the leader.
With a revised schedule for Sunday due to bad weather, the Pirelli National Sportbike race got underway on Sunday evening with Rhys making a good start. After the first few laps, Rhys battled it out with a group from 2nd to 8th for the rest of the race. Due to the bad conditions on the track, Rhys couldn’t quite make up the ground and brought home a 7thplaced finish.
The 7th placed finish for Rhys gave him 12 points towards the championship standings. Having solidified 8th place in the championship, Rhys is hopeful of breaking into the top 5 with 2 rounds and 3 races left, with plenty of points still left to race for.
This is what Rhys had to say on his weekend:
“Going into round 8 I was really hopeful of pushing at the front, and I feel I have the pace but finding a good setup was quite difficult this weekend.
During FP1 I was struggling with understeer and was running off track on the exit of the corners, so for FP2 we made some massive changes and although we fixed the understeer, we created a whole new set of issues. I finished combined practice in P10.
For qualifying we made some more changes to the bike to help with the problems that I was experiencing on Friday afternoon, they worked but still not 100% still I managed to qualify in 9th position”.
Rhys then went to say:
“Sunday was a long one. The race not being until 5pm was bad enough but the weather added to the frustration, after spending Friday and Saturday looking for a good set up, we had to change for the conditions.
The track was still damp, but I made a good start and moved up 2 positions. I caught up to the next rider who was riding at a slower pace than myself but still had a hard time passing him until the last lap. I crossed the line in P7 and thankful I didn’t crash this weekend”.
We’ll next see Rhys in a few weeks’ time for the penultimate round of the Pirelli National Sportbike Championship at Donington Park, where Rhys hopes to boost his chances of a top 5 finish.