Pictures by Stephen Gilbert
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Tyres the key at Silverstone
The eleventh round of the British Superbike Championship was back on familiar territory for the Two Wheel Racing Team and at one of Jenny’s favourite tracks at Silverstone in Northamptonshire.
Throughout free practice Jenny suffered greatly with tyre degradation which, whilst it didn’t deter her from completing quick laps, it was preventing a long continual run of laps and it was also playing on the teams mind for the races. There were concerns that the tyre life was going to be an issue, as it was at Assen.
Despite completing her fastest ever lap round Silverstone in free practice 3, after having to change the tyre during qualifying, the team made the decision to make some changes. So for warm up several alterations were made to the bike and Jen went out on the harder compound tyre. This was then used for the races and whilst it was initially an issue getting up to temperature at the start of the race, once race ready it resulted in consistent lap times for the full duration of the race.
In Race 1after 7 laps Jenny’s times were consistent and still improving compared with others dropping off, in fact she completed her fastest lap of the race on the last lap. Towards the end of the race she was gaining over 4 seconds a lap on the bike infront and she crossed the line in 25th position. Race 2 proved to be an exact replica of Race 1 with her lap times being consistent and again gaining on the bike in front towards the end of the race. Jenny again finished in 25th position.
Rider Jenny Tinmouth said :
“It was a brave decision to change the tyre compound for warm up, so close to the races especially never having used them before, but it proved to be the right one. It was hard to adapt to the lack of grip and feel until the tyre was up to temperature but to run my quickest lap at the end of the race in Race 1 and seeing how my lap times compared to the rest of the field only gave me confidence for Race 2 where again I was gaining at the end of the race and finished strongly. It has been a great penultimate round and I am looking forward to finishing the season in a positive manner as a way of thanking my fans and my sponsors for all their help and support throughout the year especially Hardinge Machine Tools, Sorrymate.com and Manx Glass.”
Crew Chief Steve Bradley said:
“There is no comparison between the Jenny Tinmouth that started this season and the Jenny Tinmouth that is now competing. Her feedback from riding the bike and her understanding of the bike has been immense. She now looks comfortable on the bike every time she goes out on track and if there are issues we are able to make changes to accommodate and resolve them. Whilst we are looking forward to going to Brands for the final round, and hoping to end on a high note, it will also be disappointing that the season is ending after so much has been achieved in such a short space of time.”
The next round of the British Superbike Championship is at Brands Hatch and takes place on the 12th-14th October with races being screened live on British Eurosport.
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