Jenny Tinmouth once again treated everyone to a top performance over the last weekend during round eight of the British Supersport Championship, watched by a record three day attendance of 53,000 spectators, at a sun drenched Brands Hatch GP circuit. Riding her sorrymate.com entered Honda CBR600RR, she had an impressive weekend, with both her best qualifying and race performance of the season, finishing the race in 17th place overall, and fifth of the Cup competitors.
Friday morning’s first free practice session was held in less than perfect conditions, with the track surface damp in places, and mist causing visibility problems. Despite the tricky conditions, Tinmouth completed nine laps, recording her best time on the final circulation of the 2.3 mile Grand Prix circuit, placing her just outside the top ten, in 11th position of the 22 riders who braved the conditions.
With both visibility and the track surface much improved, the afternoon session brought lap times tumbling down, James Westmoreland setting the quickest time, with Tinmouth rapidly improving too, to post the 25th fastest time of the 33 competitors, only 2.7 seconds shy of Westmoreland’s Triumph 675.
On the Saturday, Tinmouth continued to improve her lap times during the first of two official qualifying sessions, reducing her time by a further second to record a lap of 1 minute 30.960 seconds, at an average speed of 91.06mph to provisionally place her 24th on the grid for the following day’s race.
Determined to get every last ounce of performance from her sorrymate.com Honda CBR600RR, she just overstepped the mark slightly during the final qualifying period, losing the front, resulting in a spectacular high speed crash at the notoriously quick right hander of Westfield. Returning to pit lane on the back of the taxi bike, she was relieved to be relatively unhurt apart from a little scrape or two. However, she would be even more relieved to learn that the incident hadn’t dropped her down the grid, and she would still be able to take up her position on the sixth row for the following day’s race. Her excellent mechanic, Steve Bradley, worked hard and did a fantastic job in repairing the bike during the evening.
Tinmouth completed seven laps during morning warm up and declared herself happy that everything was in good order for the upcoming race.
Lining up in 24th position on the sixth row of the grid, Tinmouth would be alongside Astro Honda rider Lee Jackson. As the lights went out to begin the 18 lap race, Tinmouth made a great start, but on the uphill run into Druids she tangled with Ross Walter, forcing her wide, losing her momentum and several places. Somewhat adrift of the pack ahead, the race was brought under safety car conditions at about mid-distance, due to a dramatic crash involving Chris Martin at Hawthorn. This brought the pack back together, and from this point Tinmouth kept her rhythm to take the chequered flag in a creditable 17th position, and fifth of the cup competitors.
“I really enjoyed my weekend at Brands Hatch; racing the 600 around the full GP circuit was great fun and reminded me of how fantastic the track is. It’s definitely one of the best in the country, if not the best, I love it." said Tinmouth.
"I was chuffed with my qualifying position, despite my little excursion, but was slightly disappointed with my race pace. This was largely due to running a medium compound tyre, which I thought would be the best option to last the race, but I was struggling with the lack of rear end grip, maybe due to the high track temperature, so I couldn’t run the pace I know I’m capable of.
"The race panned out ok though, and I got my best finish of the season so far. We are now going to refresh the engine before heading to Cadwell, where we hope to push for another good result. See you all there!"
