BROMSGROVE racer Jake Clark endured a difficult weekend at Cadwell Park in the eighth round of the Hel Performance Motostar British Standard Class Championship but still managed to finish both races.
In the first free practice session last Friday, Clark spent time familiarising himself with the unusual Lincolnshire circuit dubbed as the ‘Mini-Nurburgring’.
He finished tenth quickest with a time of one minute 41.085 seconds.
In the second session Clark improved on his time by two tenths of a second but slipped to 12th overall.
Saturday then brought the qualifying session which proved more difficult than usual for the 14-year-old.
On a fast part of the circuit, Clark lost control of the rear of the Moto3 bike and crashed having completed just eight laps.
Unhurt from the incident, he managed to qualify tenth, clocking 1:40.751.
Later that afternoon Clark lined up for the first of his two 12-lap races.
He made a good start and at one point was running seventh in class.
As the race wore on and riders started to bunch together, Clark’s inexperience saw him slip down the order and finish the race in 11th.
His best lap time was 1:40.172.
The second race on Sunday started badly for Clark as he struggled to keep up with the pace of riders around him.
Unfortunately, he fell away from the group and spent most of the race riding on his own before finishing in 13th.
“It was a hard weekend,” Jake said.
“In qualifying the back stepped out and I crashed at the fast part of the circuit.
“Race one was really fun. I got a great start and then later on I came together with a couple of other riders when I was racing in the group.
“I am a bit disheartened with the last race. I was hoping to get down to a 1:39 lap time but I didn’t manage to do it.
“I struggled round the back end of the track and lost a lot of time there.
“On a positive note I have finished another two Moto3 races and I’m looking forward to doing better at Silverstone.”
