Two points cap ‘positive' weekend
A valuable points-scoring finish capped off a 'positive' weekend for Southland racer Cormac Buchanan in the Moto3 World Championship in the United Kingdom.
The Invercargill teenager bagged two highly sought-after championship points after finishing 14th in a demanding race at Silverstone yesterday.
Windy conditions added a degree of complexity to the race itself, thwarting Buchanan's impact on the official scoresheet. However, he rated round seven as a success overall.
'The weekend as a whole was a positive one. I felt really strong from the first session and we were able to consistently build on that momentum,' Buchanan said.
'Motorsport has a way of dishing out the highs and lows in pretty quick succession at times. You just have to roll with the punches and that's what we did.'
Racing for Denssi Boe Motorsport in his rookie year, Buchanan continues to demonstrate his potential, particularly given his penchant for working solo in a field where the most miniscule margins can have a massive influence.
'We missed out on going directly to Q2 by less than half a-10th of a second again which was disappointing, especially given we hit traffic on our last time attack lap,' he said.
'But the best thing for me was to be able to spin laps alone and feeling the best I've felt all season and that just shows our evolution and proves our work is paying off.'
Squally conditions were soon thrown into the mix and never relented.
'It was wet on Saturday morning and we put together a really good FP2 where I sat inside the top two for the whole session. We didn't switch to the dry tyres for the last laps so I had to settle for P6, but we banked a lot of information on the wets about the longevity of them,' Buchanan said.
'In the qualifying we did our work alone again despite the windy conditions not being the best without a slipstream. After the first run I was sitting second but I knew I had to improve to pass to Q2.
'I went with the group for the last flying lap and in the first sector alone I was up by three-10ths of a second, but I had a high-side at turn seven and that was my session over. It was a pretty bad crash, and I got banged up with lots of bruises and cuts.'
The notorious UK weather continued for Sunday's battle.
"I made a decent start to stick with the front pack so I knew if I just stayed there I would be able to make strong progress. With the wind it proved difficult and quite treacherous,' he said.
'I got blown off the track heading into turn six and I lost the group at that point which was annoying because we could have fought for the top places. Once I lost that slipstream it was impossible to catch them with the wind.
'On the next lap exiting corner five my front wheel got lifted up by the wind and when it came back down with a thud it bent my handlebar, so I had to ride with that from lap four onwards which was obviously not pleasant, especially given my physical condition wasn't flash after the crash.
'We save face by getting two points so I'm happy about that, but I know more is possible.
"OK, it's not my best result on paper but the pace and everything we're doing now is a lot better than at the start of the year."
— APL
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