Wet early end for Middlemas in Round 4

Triumph mounted Sam Middlemas rode to a fighting fourth place in the first race but crashed out whilst leading in the second at the fourth round of the EMRA championship at Mallory Park.

After being told by scrutineers that the brake lines on the red Triumph were illegal, this resulted in the Leicestershire rider not being able to ride the morning practice and get to grips with the difficult conditions.

Forced into the deep end after no practice, Sam struggled with the damp conditions trying to race around a slippery Mallory Park. Holding third place for the majority a drying track further hindered the 20 year old as a mistake by running wide at Gerard’s Bend and nearly going down allowed Michael Price to pass and dropped Sam down to fourth place at the chequered flag.

With conditions worsening in the afternoon for the second race, Sam looked ahead with anticipation, “Before race two I felt quite confident that I could run at the front and maybe even take the win. I know I'm a good wet weather rider usually and if I'd of ridden the Triumph in the wet before I feel that would of helped me a lot more, but my plan was to get the holeshot and try to check out. I know it's hard to pass somebody of a similar speed in the wet as you have to run off line into even slippery parts of the track.”

The race started perfectly for Sam with taking the holeshot into the first corner, unfortunately the lap did not continue as planned with Sam making an underestimated judgment and taking a heavy crash at the esses at over 100mph. This resulted in him taking a trip to the medical centre in the back of an ambulance and on a stretcher wearing a neck brace, but fortunately Sam was ok.

Sam comments on the day, “Before the crash of race 2 I was very comfortable. But during race 1 I felt like I was going in a little blind due to not really knowing the track conditions and not having had any previous practice that day. I feel I could have done a lot better in race one, really overall it wasn't a good day at all. However, I learnt not to try too hard to make up lost points as you can end up losing even more!”

He added, “Thanks to all the marshals and medical staff that picked me up and looked after me though.”

With a race coming up in just six days time with the Derby Phoenix championship Sam is hoping to be fit when he moves on to Brands Hatch.

By: Robin Goodwin