Beginning her second season in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship, Ellesmere Port Star, Jenny Tinmouth, riding her Honda CBR600RR, eventually managed to salvage some handy points in the Supersport Cup finishing in 10th position, and 25th overall in the opening round of the season on the 1.19 mile Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
 
Using the extended free practice time given to the riders at this meeting, due to lack of testing opportunities, Tinmouth soon got down to business and set a time a whisker outside her personal best around the fast Indy circuit, but before she could push even harder, it all came to grief at Graham Hill bend.
 
“I don’t really know what happened, I was minding my own business, and the next minute I’m on my bum. I think I was a bit deep into the corner, and as soon as I went from brake to throttle, the front just tucked," said Jenny.
 
With both Tinmouth and the bike relatively unscathed she ended up in 23rd position, and ready to get back to it a few hours later. The following free practice was held in wet conditions, Tinmouth splashing her way to 15th position of the 18 riders who ventured out for a look.
 
During Saturday morning’s final free practice session, Tinmouth’s machine developed technical problems. Returning to the pits, Steve, her trusty mechanic, made some adjustments, but the problem was persistent, so she retired back to the awning to attempt to resolve the mystery.
 
Having changed some electrical components, Tinmouth went into the first of two qualifying sessions, held in damp conditions. There appeared to be some small improvement, but the problem was still hindering her progress. Attempting to put a decent lap in towards the end of the session, she managed to claim 26th position, with a time of 54.063 seconds.
 
Final qualifying was held in dry conditions, Tinmouth’s machine however, was steadily getting worse, noticeably losing power exiting corners, but she would persevere to qualify in 32nd position on the grid, with a time fractionally better than the one set in qualifying at the final round last season, which was very respectable, considering the technical issues she was encountering.
 
As race day dawned, morning warm-up was a bit of a none event, as the team were still chasing the problems, but another new part was fitted for the upcoming race.
 
Taking her position on the grid, Tinmouth made a good start and made up a few places in the opening exchanges, her mind however, was partly set on how the bike was running, and thankfully it seemed like the problem was cured. However, with qualifying not going according to plan, the race was to be much more of a test of the bike’s reliability than anything else. She secured 25th position overall, and 10th in the Supersport Cup, setting her best lap time of 49.012 seconds in the process.
 
With a few points in the bag, and the satisfaction that the bike is now running properly, Tinmouth looks forward to Round 2 of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship, at her local circuit of Oulton Park, over the weekend of 2-4 May, 2009.
 
In the meantime, next weekend, 18-19 April, you can see Jenny in action at Snetterton, where she will be joining forces with her sponsor Fergus Delgarno from sorrymate.com, riding the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade competitively for the first time, in preparation for the upcoming Isle of Man TT Superstock races.