Goole youngster Charlie Atkins was racing at Donington Park in the tenth round of the Hel Performance Motostar British standard class Championship at the weekend. He showed great pace all weekend and scored a top eight finish in race one. A small error in race two meant he didn’t add to his race one points, but he was able to run much closer to the race leaders pace.
Free Practice
It was raining for the first free practice session but that didn’t stop Atkins gaining valuable experience in the wet conditions. At the end of six laps Atkins machine unfortunately developed a mechanical issue so his session was cut short. At the time he came into the pits he was in second place overall and first in the standard class.
Qualifying
The sun came out for Q1 and the track was dry. Charlie Atkins continued to show how he has progressed this season as he led the standard class as the clock began to tick down. Despite a late flurry of riders beating his lap time of 1:42.557 he remained in a provisional fourth place just two tenths of a second behind the second placed rider.
On Saturday morning Q2 saw several fallers, perhaps due to the cooler conditions. Atkins had trouble matching his lap times from Friday in a very tight qualifying session in which he finished fifth. His lap time from Friday saw him qualify sixth fastest overall just 0.392 seconds from second position, in this competitive class.
Race One
Photo: Johny Wills
Unfortunately, Charlie Atkins got bogged down at the start of the ten lap race and lost several places as he went through the first corner. By the time he completed the first lap the safety car came out after an accident involving to off the GP class riders. It stayed out until the end of the third lap. Being able to race at full speed again Atkins managed to recover some of the lost places before tagging on the back of the leading group. He was able to run a very fast pace but just ran out of laps. He crossed the finish line in 8th position. However, because of his pace he would line up second in the standard class for the race on Sunday.
Race Two
Atkins was feeling confident for race two. Over the last few rounds he has been getting closer and closer to the front-runners pace and a podium was a possibility. Having started to close in on the group battling for second place Atkins pushed a little too hard going into Goddards and lost the front end.
Charlie Atkins now has 128 points and is just four away from ninth place in the overall standings, with two more rounds to go.
Charlie Atkins said,” Race one was great. I really had the pace and although I finished 8th I was confident that with a good start in race two I could be challenging for a podium. Unfortunately, I made a mistake going into Goddards which sent me crashing out of the race. It was really frustrating and I’m sorry to my sponsors and supporters. The good thing is I feel that we are really improving and able to challenge at the front.”