“After a journey in excess of eight hours due to closure of M4 near Cardiff, we arrived at Pembrey on the Thursday evening, in readiness for the following day’s testing.�

Testing

“Yet another troublesome test day, still finding it hard to re-gain my lost confidence, managing a 1:07.4 lap in one of the afternoon sessions – some 3+ seconds from my track PB.�

Saturday (Race Day)

“Out in qualifying session one soon after 9am, and set a disappointing 1:08.623 qualifying time, not that it mattered as it happens…�

Race 1 (Saturday)

“Due to an unfortunate incident during one of the later qualifying sessions, the schedule got pushed back by over an hour. And due to poor comms at the circuit, we hadn’t realised my race had been called, panic set in as we hastily got ready to go out. By the time I’d reached the assembly point, the rest of the riders where on their warm-up lap, and I was told to filter in after they’d passed and to start from the back of the grid P35!

“A decent start saw me pass three riders off the line, and a further four by the time we exited turn one!

“The rest of the race was uneventful, but I did improve my time to a 1:06.4, bring it home in P24, (P12 in class).�

Race 2 (Sunday)

“Starting P24 was an improvement from the previous day. Not such a good start off the line this time, but was hopeful of making places up at turn one again.

“Going on the outside (my preferred option), I got caught up in the mele and was forced wide onto a damp patch on the outside of the corner. Unperturbed, I manged to hold on to a decent position circa P17, achieving my fastest lap of the weekend on lap  2 (1:05.744), but unfortunately couldn’t hang on to those in front of me, and faded towards the end, losing a couple of places in the process.

“Finishing P19 & P9 in class, I was buoyed by the improvement.�

Race 3 (Sunday)

“Starting P19, I was hopeful of continued improvement, but a poor start and then running off the circuit on the exit of turn one put me in all but last position. We managed to pull a few places backs by the end of the race, finishing in P18 (P7 in class).

“In summary, an inconsistent weekend, but starting to feel more at one with the bike again, with a few more points added to the tally.

“With this weekend’s results, I have moved up to eighth position in the Clubman 600 championship, moving onto Brands Hatch in four weeks’ time, hoping that the improvement continues in Kent countryside!�

Luca Wilkinson

“On Friday we did a track walk with the one and only Andy Wales – Luca’s instructor – and Aleisha Layton. In Friday’s practice, we chipped away at the times with lots of learning thanks to Andy.

“On Saturday, it was straight into qualifying. Not a great pace, but managed P4 in the very last lap and within 0.2 seconds off pole.

“Race 1 – I got the holeshot, but dropped to third halfway through the lap. Settled in and felt good hanging on to the second-place rider. Unfortunately, on lap 4, I was hit from behind and lost three places. With a bent shock adjuster, I couldn’t get my foot on the peg properly. Brought it home 5^th for some valuable points.

“Race 2 – Starting 7^th and another great start. I was again sitting in third but the group were all together. Red flag so a restart, followed by a four-lap dash. Not a great start and ended up on the outside of turn 1 on the still-wet kerbs. Dropped down to 6^th, the battle was on. Managed to work my way back up to 4^th and get the fastest lap so pole for Sunday’s race.

“Race 3 – Straight into the lead until lap 5 where he dropped down to 4th. Time to dig in. More laps of dicing, with backmarkers playing their part & a fair few place changes. Into the final lap and 3 changes for the lead ending in 1st at the line by just 0.002secs. So close he didn’t even know until we told him in the pits.

“Race 4 – Starting 4^th, great start into the lead but race red-flagged on lap 5. Restart running in 1^st but with two laps to go I hit a false neutral coming into turn 1 and dropped to 4^th. Last lap and it was three abreast going into turn 1, and I almost ended up on the grass, but had the inside line full ‘block pass’. So into the lead and set my personal PB and first time into the 1:06s – an amazing 1^st-place finish.�

Aleisha Layton

“Where do I start?! During Friday practice, we built up our pace gradually and were in the 1:08s which I was very happy with.

“Qualifying: the track was pretty busy and I just couldn’t get a clean flying lap in, so had to settle for P10.

“Race 1: I managed to get amongst the leading group, due to another great start which put me in P6 straight away. I managed to get up to P3 with one lap to go, but ended losing out and settled for P4. But this was a race I was very happy with.

“Race 2: The weather was a mixed bag most of the day, so dad tried a new setup and let’s just say it didn’t work… but another lesson learnt!

“Race 3: We woke up with the sun shining, so we went and did a track walk. Off the lights, I got my usual good start. But I just struggled to get going after that. I can actually say this was my worst race to date. This is something that’s been noted and I must work on.

“Race 4: After a weekend that basically didn’t go as smoothly as I liked or expected, this lit the fire for the last one before the journey home. I ended in P5 but was with the leading group and only 1.4 seconds off from the leader. So was super happy with this. I finally sort of woke up and set my PB of the weekend with a 1:07.4, which I believe was the second fastest of the weekend.

“I enjoyed the weekend but it was a weekend we learnt from the most. My first wet qualy. My first dry race which ended up full wet, on dry tyres. So, lots to take in. To me, all these new things are another step in the right direction and I’ll carry on giving it my best to get to where I need to be.�

BEMSEE Round 2 – Pembrey

DART MRO 600

Qualifying – P7

Race 1 – P1

Race 2 – P1

Race 3 – P4 (lap PB)

Race 4 – P5 (lap PB)

Thunderbike Ultra

Qualifying – P2

Race 1 – P1

Race 2 – P2

Race 3 – DNF (lap PB)

Race 4 – P2

Saturday

“The first race of the day was the DART MRO 600. As the track was still damp from the rain at the end of qualifying, I went out on intermediate tyres. This proved to be the right choice for the track conditions. I started from P7 on the grid. All the riders in front and around me were on full wet tyres. This race became a matter of picking people off lap by lap as their tyres began to give up and mine still had plenty of life.

“The second race of the day was the Thunderbike Ultra race. The track had dried up by this point on the racing line, with just a few wet patches here and there so I went out on slick tyres with the knowledge of the track from the previous racing giving me the confidence to go out on slicks whilst others around me who hadn’t been out yet went out on wets.

“The third race of the day was back to the MRO 600 This was very much an identical race to the first race. Again, I brought it home in P1.

“The last race of the day was the second Thunderbike Ultra. This was the first full-dry race of the day. I stuck with the set of dry tyres from the previous race for this race. I started this race in P3 on the grid. I got a relatively good start and made it up to P2 by the first turn. Unfortunately, I did not have the pace to keep up with the man in P1 but was able to keep a good gap to the man behind me bringing it home in P2.�

Sunday

“The first race of the day was again the MRO 600 race. Despite getting a good start, on a dry track I didn’t have the pace to keep up with the leading pack. I was however able to get a new lap PB of 1.01.553, bringing it home in P4 with a very tight battle between P4, 5 and 6.

“The second race of the day was the Thunderbike Ultra. This race got off to a good start and I was able to battle for P1 with the lead man. This came to an end on lap 6 when we tangled into turn 1. I came out worse with this ending my race. On lap 5, I was able to achieve a new lap PB for this category of 1.01.454.

“The third race of the day was the MRO 600. I got a good start off the line and then a rider to my left squeezed me into the rider on the right. We tangled handlebars which slowed me down on the approach to turn 1. This gave the riders behind an opportunity to get by me. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind a slower rider that was positioning his bike perfectly to block any attempts of an overtake. Once I finally got past him, I had to push on to close the gap to those in front catching them with two and a half laps to go. By lap 11, I had overtaken the two riders in front of me. Unfortunately, in the last lap I caught a backmarker in the wrong place, giving one of the riders behind the run on me down the straight. I brought it home in P5 with another PB of 101.402.

“The last race of the day was the Thunderbike Ultra race. Unfortunately by this point in the weekend I was feeling the effects of no winter training due to having my ACL surgery so unfortunately, I didn’t have the fitness for this race and settled for a comfortable second place.

“My next round is the 4-5^th May at Snetterton.�

“We recently took part in the second and third rounds of the BTRDA Rallycross Championship in Pembrey, South Wales.

“After the fuelling problem that we had at Blyton, we worked hard to replace all the bits that we needed and also sent the injectors off to have a professional clean which was done by a great company – CP Race and Fuel. They did a top-notch job.

“On the Saturday (Round 2), we were looking forward to the day – the fuel issues were a thing of the past and she was working sweet as a nut. I went out on practice and was happy with how she was going. We were raring to go for Heat 1.

“Heat 1 – I was first off the line. I kept first position for a little while and after a little mistake I ended up at the back. Fighting to try and gain some places back, I was pushing hard. On the last corner before the straight, I dropped her down into second and realised that she had jumped out of gear. I tried to put her back in and then realised we had a problem… I couldn’t get her into any gear.

“Once back in the pits and on closer inspection, I had sheered all the teeth off second gear and they were then all the way through the box. Time was against us now – where we are going to find another box so we can get out racing?!

“We tried cleaning out the box the best we could to at least let us limp round, but unfortunately there was too many little bits everywhere to even allow that, as the box was binding up.

“Luckily, after a shout out on Facebook, we found a box and they were not far away from the track. The only thing was the box was still in a car so we bought the whole car.Ìý

“Once back to the pits, it was time to get this box out of the new car before it went dark.

“With the team working hard to get it out, we managed it and got everything swapped over on to the new box. We managed to have it removed and ready for installation by 9pm that night.”

“Last week saw rounds two and three of the BTRDA RallyCross Championship held at Pembrey race circuit.

“Round 2 was on the Saturday. Unfortunately, I missed heat 1. Heat 2 got off to a good start. I had a little collision with another driver but the car was still drivable, so I carried on. The race got red flagged close to the beginning, so we got a restart. On the restart again I started well. Going round the course I spun about four times. This caused me to be at the back and I tried to catch up but just couldn’t make it. With the spin, one driver managed to catch up and lap me so I got a DNF for that race.

“When we got the car in after the race, we could see the cause of why the car was spinning easily. During the collision with another driver, the tracking had been knocked out on one of my rear wheels by about 10mm – we corrected this ready for the next race.

“Heat 3 started off great. The race was good and I finished 5^th. My times through the race got better and quicker with each lap.

“Then it was time for the final. I started about mid-way through the pack. My launch was faultless and I felt my driving just got better. In this final, I did the best defensive driving I’d ever done. My times again just got better through the laps with me getting the best time I had all day of 42.8 seconds. For the race, I finished 5^th overall and in class I came home with a 2^nd place. I was super chuffed and was ready for the next day.”