Photo: Kerry Rawson
The 2.8 mile Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire was the location for the third round of the Hel Performance Motostar British Championship last weekend.
Race preparation got underway on Saturday morning with the first of two free practice sessions. The 13-year-old made a solid start in FP1 lapping the undulating circuit in 1:54.272. Then in FP2 Atkins managed to find another 1.4 seconds reducing his lap time to 1:52.859.
With only one race at this event there was a further free practice early on the Sunday afternoon before qualifying. During the fifteen minute FP3 session Atkins again reduced his lap time and was placed 6th. In Qualifying Atkins gave it his all, with no rider completing more laps than him. He recorded a lap time of 1:51.253 putting him 8th in the standard class category.
On Monday morning the riders awoke to a wet track and conditions totally different to the previous two days. Despite the weather Atkins went out and completed the ten minute session. In the poor conditions he recorded the third best time.
However, once the race arrived the track had dried and there was no further rain forecast. The race was reduced to 11 laps after the original had to be stopped when one of the GP class bikes failed to get away when the lights went out and two other riders hit it from behind. In the incident Elliot Pinson suffered a suspected broken leg.
In the restart Atkins quickly moved up past Faber and into fifth place. The rider from Goole was involved in a race long struggle with Faber. They swapped places several times throughout the race before Atkins made it count on the last lap to take sixth place and his best finish of the season so far.
Charlie Atkins said,” Firstly, I want to wish Elliot Pinson a speedy recovery. We have had a difficult start to this year, but this weekend was a big step forward. We’ve picked up ten valuable points and I’m Looking forward to Knockhill on the 18th June. Thank you to Tim Harman of Harmen Carpets, MustHaveMediaServices.com and The Bell and Crown pub for their continued support.”
