Charlie Atkins spent his bank holiday weekend at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in Kent competing in the second round of the Hel Performance Motostar British Championship.
This circuit has proved a bit of a bogey circuit for the 13-year-old last season. In 2016, in tricky conditions, he had a DNF in race one and finished 13th in the second race of the weekend.
After the two free practice sessions Atkins had made steady progress finishing up with a best lap time of 52.359 and 9th quickest.
The standard Moto3 class is notoriously competitive with all riders using a standard NSF250R Honda machine where no engine modifications are allowed.
In qualifying Atkins continued to improve his lap times ending the 25 minute session with a 51.766 second lap. Despite his progress he didn’t manage to improve his positioning on the grid, being the ninth quickest time in the standard class.
In race one on Saturday Atkins made a solid start and was lapping some consistent low 52 second laps during the race. After the half of the race Charlie Atkins became embroiled in a battle with three other riders. From the mid-way stage there were only a few tenths between them. Atkins showed great maturity to maintain his pace, not enabling the riders to overtake and he went on to finish the race in 8th position.
With eight points secured on the Sunday Atkins was looking to put more on the board with a strong performance in Monday’s second race. The 14-year-old made a strong start and was up to 6th position in the opening laps. Then he started to slip back over the next few laps dropping to eighth before having to retire with a technical problem.
Again, Brands Hatch had proved to be a difficult place for Atkins to get good results. He is eleventh in the championship after two rounds.
Charlie Atkins said, ”What a disappointing weekend again here at Brands Hatch! Race one wasn’t too bad and I was feeling positive about the second race. Then having moved up a few places I started to have some problems with the bike and after the tenth lap of the race I retired so as not to cause any further damage to the bike. The good thing though is we now move on to Oulton Park. Last time I had a good result there. Thank you to Tim Harman of Harmen Carpets, MustHaveMediaServices.com and The Bell and Crown pub for their continued support.”
Photo: Craig Hobbs Photography