Coming off of a 5th-place finish in Donington, Rhys was back out on the track over the weekend for round 3 of the Pirelli National Sportbike championship with Snetterton playing host. With good memories of the track last year after a 6th placed finish, Rhys was hopeful going into the round wanting to better his result.
Rhys’ round started on Friday morning in the first free practice session where throughout the session, Rhys was struggling with the bike’s front end. However, Rhys managed to battle through the issue and complete 11 laps with his best time coming on the final lap. Rhys posted a time of 2:00.227, placing him in 11th.
After a lengthy break, and a front suspension change, Rhys felt much better going into the new session. Again, Rhys managed to complete 11 laps with his best time coming on the final lap. Rhys shaved off nearly a second off of his previous time, coming in with a 1:59.224, pushing him up a place to 10th.
As qualifying time came around on Saturday morning, a new set of tyres was called for. This massively helped Rhys as he shaved off nearly 2 seconds from the second free practice session. Rhys came in with a time of 1:57.620 placing him 6th on the grid for the main race on Sunday.
Race day soon came around with Rhys feeling optimistic for the 11-lap race ahead. Starting 6th on the grid, Rhys made a good start on the opening lap but the issues from Friday starting to make their way back. Struggling with corner entries, Rhys slipped back to 8th which is where he would stay for the remainder of the race. An 8th-place finish meant 10 more points to Rhys’ championship total, taking him onto 46 points for the season and remaining 6th in the overall standings.
This is what Rhys had to say on his weekend:
“I struggled in FP1 with front-end chatter, but a quick suspension change was all that was needed for FP2 where I felt better with the bike just not my riding.
I was optimistic for the race with a good start and a healthy first lap, but the chatter came back, again struggling with corner entries, I slipped back to 8th but held position at the front of that group despite the issues.
Only having one race in a weekend also adds a sense of urgency as it’s one less session to rectify any issues. We know where the problems lie, and we are working to rectify what we can moving forward”.
We’ll see Rhys next week for round 4 of the Pirelli National Sportbike championship with Knockhill playing host.