Held wearer Tom Weeden was back in action last weekend at Oulton Park for round 3 of the Triumph Triple Challenge. The 18 year old made the best of a difficult weekend and was happy to have walked away from the meeting 4th place in the championship.
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| 18 year old Tom Weeden- two top 6 finishes at Oulton |
There was little time for Weeden to get his bike set up after the practice session had to be stopped after only 4 laps completed due to the track curfew time being reached as result of a couple of red flags in previous sessions. He ended the practice session 12th fastest. The team made some suspension changes and Tom felt it would allow him to knock a lot of time off in the qualifying session. Unfortunately Tom did not qualify as high up the grid as he had hoped he would; only going 11th fastest despite going three seconds faster than his practice time. It started to rain at a few of the corners around the circuit after a few a laps and Tom pulled in to wait for it to ease off to try and put a faster lap in. The rain held off and after 5 minutes in the pits Weeden went back out to try and improve his time. Unfortunately he could not better it after making a mistake going into Shell Oils hairpin on his last flying lap leaving him in 11th position on the grid for race 1. He remained confident though and knew that if he got a good start he could push for a top 5 position in the race.
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| Tom Weeden- battled Flu and the wet at Oulton |
The rain came down for race 1 and Tom felt confident he could push for the front in wet conditions after his pole position at Thruxton in wet conditions last time out. Tom got off the line well from 11th on the grid, and had moved up to 7th by the end of the first lap. He then moved up two places on lap two to move into 5th position. A fallen rider in front of Weeden on lap 4 promoted him into 4th place. Tom held 4th until lap 8 when he was dropped to 5th by David Sellers, however he immediately took the place back as Sellers ran wide at the end of the lap. On the last lap Sellers passed Tom into turn 1, Weeden got the drive out of the corner and temporarily retook 4th position, however he was passed on the brakes into Cascades. Weeden crossed the line in 5th position in the slippery conditions and was pleased just to have finished the race.
Tom was moved up to 8th position on the grid for race 2 based on the fastest lap times in race 1. The track had dried by the start of the second race and the dry tyres were back on. Weeden got off the line well, however he found himself boxed in at turn 1 and lost several places as he lost drive out of the corner. He crossed the line in 8th place after the first lap, before moving up into 7th place on lap 2. Tom got stuck behind Patronen until lap 5 and then immediately started to pull away from the pack behind him, pulling a 5.7 second gap in 5 laps to finish in a comfortable 6th position. This leaves Tom 4th in the championship after 3 rounds, with 6 rounds still to contest. Weeden is next out at the Snetterton circuit for round 4 of the Triumph Triple Challenge.
Team Manager Quote
“Considering the Lack of Quality track time, and the fact that Tom was suffering all weekend with “flu like” symptoms not a bad result. Some more points on the board and one more space up the leader board. We seem to have nailed the lack of grip and gearbox troubles so onwards to Snetterton”
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