After a strong weekend last time out at Brands Hatch, Rhys was ready to attack the next round of the Pirelli National Sportbike championship, with Thruxton playing host to round 6.

Rhys got his round underway on Friday morning in the first free practice session, where he made a very solid start, finding good pace early on and posting a best time of 1:20.981 and a 7th place finish.

Just before the second practice session got underway, Rhys and the team made some slight set-up changes to give Rhys more confidence and speed through the high-speed sections. Unfortunately, Rhys struggled with the changes made but still managed a 9th-place finish.

Early Saturday afternoon saw qualifying get underway, and with the conditions the hottest it’s been so far, it was proving tough for anyone to find the perfect lap. Despite this, Rhys finished in 12th place, meaning he’ll start 12th on the grid for the first race of the weekend.

Race 1 got underway, and Rhys got off the line with decent pace and held his position on the first lap. However, lap 2 is where the magic happened. Coming into the last corner of lap 2, Rhys took an inside route and, by doing so, overtook 7 riders in the process. From there, Rhys raced well and despite dropping back to 5th for a short period, Rhys put his foot down on the last lap and crossed the line in 2nd, getting his 2nd podium of the year and 22 points to the championship standings.

Race 2 on Sunday was a different story. The change of wind made it difficult to find the right draft going into Thruxton’s long straights, and Rhys couldn’t quite latch onto the group of leaders. Despite the struggles, Rhys still managed an 8th-place finish and 10 more points to his championship standings.

A 32-point weekend for Rhys pushes Rhys on 85 points and into 9th in the overall standings.

This is what Rhys had to say about his weekend:

“A weekend that had its tricky moments, but that Race 1 podium makes all the hard work worth it. Massive thanks to the team for giving me a bike that could fight at the front, and to everyone who came to support us at Thruxton”.

We’ll next see Rhys in just over a week’s time for round 7 of the Pirelli National Sportbike championship, this time at Cadwell Park.