A National License at Donington Park

Sam Middlemas made a successful debut at the Donington Park circuit with competitive rides in the Thunderbikes and Formula 600 classes with top five finishes, including two podiums.

The opening race of the day for the Triumph mounted Leicestershire rider was the first of the two Thunderbikes races. Starting on the second row Sam got a good start from the lights, but suffered from a gearbox malfunction, “I went to select second gear but the bike went into neutral then it went into second after a few seconds. I lost a lot of places when this happened and I went into turn one about ninth.”

Sam then made a charge through the field passing riders in front of him one by one and moving into the lead past Chris Brant and Jon Otter. Sam added, “I was making some mistakes going into Redgate and other places but I thought I was quite safe as I had rode through the field to get to the front.

However, the race was to be decided at Redgate after another charging Triumph rider by the name of Adam Tempest caught and dived underneath the red Triumph of Sam to take the lead. Sam followed Adam’s lead through Craner Curves and closed right up at the Old Hairpin with am aim to make the pass into Coppice.

Sam described the events, “I decided against the pass, as Adam’s bike was quicker than mine and would have out dragged my bike down the straight under the Dunlop Bridge. Looking back this was the wrong decision to think about out braking him into the chicane as I struggled to stay in his slipstream down the back straight and was unable to get close enough to out brake him into the final chicane and out of Goddards he led me beating me into second by two hundredths of a second.”

“I was really annoyed that I hadn’t ridden a bit better as I feel I should really have won this race. The start was a disaster but Adam rode well and started even further behind than I did so well done to him.” admitted Sam.

The start of the second Thunderbike race seemed to play déjà vu with the Triumph 675 as again the bike hit neutral off the line and didn’t go into second gear. Unfortunately, the outcome was much worse than the first race as Sam fell back to 15th place from his front row start. Sam rode has hard as he could to get himself back up to the front runners in the class, having to pass a lot of quicker riders along the way, including Triumph 675 cup rider Michael Booth.

“I thought I had gone quicker in this race but it turned out I hadn’t as I’d obviously been trying to hard to make up for the gearbox problem at the start of the race. I managed to get up to fourth at the flag and pretty much on terms with third place man Chris Brant on his GSXR750 but I had ran out of time and couldn’t get by him.” explained Sam.

The first 600 race saw Sam start from second on the grid after his performance in the previous race. Once the lights went out to signal the start of the race Sam was able to get a good jump from his starting position without any problems from his gearbox, “I got as decent start as the bike did not hit neutral but it did snap once I selected second gear after holding the shift pedal down for a little bit too long as I was expecting it to not go into second.” This put the 675 and Sam in fourth place behind Richard Gibson. The two riders traded places throughout the race in a fight for third position with Sam just managing to out brake Gibson and take third position across the line.

The final race for the day was the second Formula 600 race, Sam struggled off from his front row position and fell back to fifth place, “the start went much like the others the bike went into second after momentarily hitting neutral but this wasn’t as bad as it was in the two Thunderbike races.” Sam held fifth position into the first corner behind series leader Mick Daly, Adam Tempest, Alan Percival and Richard Gibson.

“I tried hard throughout the race but I was unable to get onto terms with Gibson and Tempest who seemed to be dragging each other along. I ended the race in fifth place but I set my best lap time of the day.” Said Sam, “I wasn’t happy with this result but I was beaten by some good riders also on good bikes.”

Sam concluded, “I know I need to sort the gearbox selector problem out for my next meeting as this made riding difficult for me today at Donington. This was my first race at the circuit and my first time on the national layout. I felt like the day went well and I now know what parts of the circuit which I must work on to improve for my next meeting here with New Era Superclub in August.”

Sam is now up to fourth in the Derby Phoenix 600 championship despite only having competed in three of ten rounds, and has managed to earn his National license meaning that he is now able to enter British Superbike level races against the best riders in the country.

‘’Thanks to all those who helped over the weekend including, Stu and Wooly for being great to share a garage with and also my Dad for all his help as always.’’

By: Robin Goodwin