After having his best round to date last time out, Daniel was feeling confident going into round 4 of the British Talent Cup, taking place at Brands Hatch. It was a big challenge ahead for Daniel as it was a brand new track for him to learn, as well as getting used to the gradient change throughout the track and trying to navigate blind corners.
The first free practice session got underway late Friday morning with Daniel managing to complete 13 laps with his best time coming on his final lap. He came in with a time of 1:40.677, placing him in 20th. More importantly, Daniel took away key information he learnt about the track to take forward going into the weekend.
After a break, Daniel got his second and final free practice session underway on Friday evening. It was clear to see Daniel becoming more confident with the track and knowing when he can attack corners and when he has to take it more conservatively. He posted a best time of 1:40.229, managing to shave off 0.4 seconds and placing him 22nd.
Qualifying came around on Saturday morning, and with Daniel getting more used to the track, he was feeling confident going into the session. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Daniel’s best performance, but he still managed to improve by another second from the previous session. Daniel ended up qualifying in 23rd place with a time of 1:39.280.
Race 1 got underway on Saturday afternoon, and with Daniel starting in 23rd, he got off to a fast start, and all throughout the race, he was in a battle from 14th to 22nd. Just as he started to properly make up ground and enter 20th, the race was stopped due to changing weather conditions, with rain beginning to fall.
Race 2 was a similar story, Daniel started on the grid in 21st due to his finish on Saturday but quickly jumped 2 places early on into 19th. He battled it out with the rider in front for the rest of the race before the race was stopped again due to rain.
This is what Daniel had to say on his weekend:
“It was a good weekend overall, but as it was a new track, it was tricky to learn because there is so much gradient change, and a lot of corners are blind”.
This is what Daniel had to say about his races:
“It was a good race battling with Lewis Mullen and Jenson Bishop, we caught up to the group in front, but then the race got stopped due to the rain, I crossed the line in 20th place”.
In race 2, I didn’t feel it was the best race for me as I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be, but that aside, I did my best lap time of the weekend and dipped into the 1.38s. The race was stopped again due to rain, but it was a good race finishing 19th and having a good battle with Lewis Mullen and Dan Goodman”.
We’ll next see Daniel in just over a week’s time as he heads to Thruxton for round 5 of the British Talent Cup, where he hopes to add to his championship points tally.