Matt Finch, making his debut at Oulton Park in Cheshire, enjoyed the layout of the track and its physically demanding nature.
We sponsor Matt, of 445 One Ball Racing, riding his 2004 Yamaha R6 in the No Limits Racing Metzeler Newcomer 600 class. He is promoting It’s On The Ball testicular cancer charity and support group.
He broke the sub two-minute lap barrier in practice and qualified 27th with a 1:58:998 time.
In race one on the Saturday, he got off to a good start, dodged a couple of crashes and people running off on the exit of turn one.
The race was red-flagged on lap four due to three fallers at the final turn but he finished 19th overall and 16th in class. A best time of 1:56:484 put him 25th on the grid for race two.
Despite a fairly sluggish start in the second race, he made up a couple of places.
After dicing with a faster Kawasaki ZX-6 throughout the race, he passed it on the last corner but was pipped on the line, losing out on P15 by 0.077s and setting a time of 1:54:476.
Despite missing out on championship points, Matt was pleased with his performance. He is aware that he needs to get up to race pace from the end of lap one to remain with a group or faster rider and rely on a tow and then rely on his fitness and logical thinking at the end of a race when other riders would begin to fade.
[Photo credit: Michael Wincott]
