Ben Wilson dominated free practice and qualifying but was denied pole position by just two hundredths of a second when Billy McConnell put together a flying lap in the dying seconds of the session.
In the short 12-lap sprint race Wilson got the hole shot and maintained his position during the first half of the race but was caught by five riders all hoping to take the win for themselves. The remainder of the race was spent dicing for position with riders slipstreaming into the complex and the lead changing frequently throughout. Wilson headed the group as they ran towards the complex on the final lap but Billy McConnell pulled out of the slipstream and took the lead swiftly followed by Alistair Seeley with Wilson hanging onto third place.
The feature race took place in wet and windy conditions with the spray making visibility almost non-existent. The Gearlink Kawasaki machines had not turned a wheel in the wet prior to this and Wilson had no idea as to how it would perform.
Wilson was second into turn one but in the slippery conditions fell back to sixth as the race progressed. Riders fell by the wayside including Alistair Seeley who retired with an electrical problem and Jack Kennedy who fell from his machine on lap 11. When two more riders went down at Church the red flag brought proceedings to an end and although Wilson had just moved up to third the result was declared on positions at the end of lap 10 and Wilson was awarded fourth place.
Jesse Trayler didn’t make the best of his qualifying session and began race one from a sixth row grid position. He got away to his usual speedy start and gained ground to finish in 19th position. The second race saw Jesse make steady progress through the field and when the race was halted he was awarded 10th place and six championship points bringing his total to 13.
Ben Wilson – "It was tricky out there in the wet conditions. The track was really slippery and I didn’t want to go down so held back a bit to make sure we brought home some points. I had just got up into third when the race was called so was disappointed to be awarded fourth. But that’s how it goes and at least we brought the points back and therefore increased the series lead."
Jesse Trayler – "I have had a bit of a tough weekend here at Thruxton and I am not really where I need to be at this stage of the championship but today I was praying for rain so I could maybe turn the weekend around and I have come away with some decent points and a good end to the weekend with a top 10 result."
Michael de Bidaph – team owner and manager – "The weekend has been good, we knew that Thruxton was going to be one of our harder circuits because it’s not the technical track that Ben likes. I am glad to get this one out of the way and am very pleased with the result because it’s the best result Ben has had here. If today had been dry I would like to think we could have won it, especially after his warm up this morning. But it wasn’t, so he had to play safe and not take any chances but finishing fourth has extended our lead which is great.
With Jesse I am not sure where we are going as yet. He did do well in the race today so at least he has brought some points back. We just have to get him up there in qualifying to give him a better chance of running nearer to the front."
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