MotorcycleRaceParts | TYSERS
BSB Thruxton 2023
Thruxton Race Report
A challenging weekend at Thruxton for Tom Tunstall in the British Supersport Cup Class still yielded a brace of third place finishes and an extended championship lead.
The ultra-fast 2.36-mile Thruxton circuit in Hampshire played host to the latest round of the British Superbike Championships.
Having been five years since MotorcycleRaceParts backed racer Tom Tunstall’s last visit increased the challenge provided by the unique circuit.
Setting changes through practice brought some progress but with confidence still to be found.
A heavy rain shower just before qualifying presented a further dimension with a wet but drying circuit across both the Q1 and Q2 sessions.
A technical issue at the start of Q2 only gave Tunstall 4 laps. With a wet front tyre and inter rear, on a drying track he managed to take 2nd placed Cup rider on the 40 rider grid.
Race one saw Tunstall in a three rider pack battling to be 2nd placed cup rider. Despite moves on the final lap it was Aiden Davie taking 2nd with Tunstall in third closely behind.
More changes in Sunday’s warm up session seemed to help but not enough for the Yorkshireman to feel fully confident with his Ducati V2 machine.
Sunday’s feature race saw the safety car brought out after the opening lap. On the restart Tunstall was unable to hold the pace of the leaders and was a lonely 3rd place in the cup and 19th overall taking the place from GP2 rider Luca Allen on the final corner.
The results saw Tunstall’s lead in the Supersport Cup championship extend to 29 points, with cup race winner Jonathan Railton now moving to to 2nd place.
Tunstall rounded up his weekend:
“I feel disappointed with the pace and results this weekend to be honest.
I enjoy racing at Thruxton but I struggled to feel confident with the bike and click with the circuit.”
“You never stop learning at this game, and I’m sure it will help in the future, we just didn’t quite learn fast enough.
I guess if two third places is a bad weekend we shouldn’t be too unhappy!”
The next round of the BSB series is the “Party in the Park” at Cadwell, a round not selected by the team this year, which means Oulton Park over the weekend 15th-17th September is the next opportunity, with Tunstall and his team very much looking forward to bouncing back stronger there.
