Jenny Tinmouth has ridden to fourth position in the Cup, and 18th overall in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship race, held at Silverstone over the last weekend.
Riding her sorrymate.com entered Honda CBR600RR in the penultimate round of the season, she achieved her fastest ever lap of the famous circuit earlier in the weekend before having the frustration of gearbox problems during the race. Her perseverance paid off though as she added to her points tally, elevating herself to fifth in the cup standings.
Friday’s free practice sessions witnessed Tinmouth re-acquainting herself with the circuit before getting down to some serious lap times. Once having settled in, the lap times started to fall, the best of which she left until the final few minutes of the afternoon, setting her quickest, and personal best lap of Silverstone’s 2.213 mile International circuit, slicing over a second off her previous best time, which was set during last year’s race.
With her confidence up, Tinmouth went into Saturday’s qualifying in a positive manner, and after the first of two 35 minute sessions to determine the grid; she had almost matched her previous day’s best time to be provisionally 25th on the grid. The afternoon final qualifying run was interrupted with seven minutes remaining, the red flags being waved due to an incident and to allow the track to be cleaned.
Once unleashed back on to the circuit, the riders quickly identified moisture on the surface at Beckett’s preventing them from challenging their times set earlier in the session. Tinmouth was frustrated, as she knew she could have gone faster, and with fellow TT star, Michael Dunlop having crept ahead of her she would find herself taking to the grid in 26th position for the following day’s 18 lap race.
As the red lights went out signaling the start of the race, Tinmouth found herself battling to keep the front wheel on the ground, losing a few places as the field of 31 riders accelerated away. She soon regained two positions once everything had settled down, but began to develop gearbox issues as early as lap four.
At first, she thought maybe she wasn’t being positive enough with her gear selection, but the problem developed further, with Tinmouth needing several attempts to engage sixth gear, losing time on each occurrence. She had spent a period of the race circulating in a podium position of the Cup competitors but with the issue continuing to hinder her she became increasingly frustrated, and considered pulling out of the race.
She did however, elect to continue, and with only a handful of laps remaining she would be overtaken for the final podium position, Tinmouth herself finishing in 18th position overall and fourth of the Cup competitors. With bad luck also befalling some of her rivals, all was not lost though as she has now climbed to fifth in the Cup standings. The final round takes place at her ‘home’ circuit, of Oulton Park, Cheshire in two weeks time.
“The weekend started off really well, improving my personal best lap time by over a second. The soft tyre was going off a little early but other than that everything was fine," said Tinmouth.
"The gearbox problem ruined my race though, which I’m gutted about. 5th and 6th gears are so important, and with it taking a few attempts to engage a gear you just lose so much time when you should be powering out of the vital corners. Sometimes it would randomly select the wrong gear almost causing me to crash, but I hung on to finish, and have gained a place in the standings for my efforts, so it’s cool.
"The final round is at my ‘home’ track of Oulton Park, so I will be looking forward to seeing what we can do there. Once again, many thanks to all who have contributed to my racing this season, no matter how big or small, it’s really appreciated. Thanks to everyone.”
Your final opportunity of 2009 to see Jenny Tinmouth competing in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship will be over the weekend of 9-11 October, as the series presents it’s final round at Oulton Park, Cheshire. She will be eager to defend her hard earned and thoroughly deserved fifth place in the standings, so please come along and support Britain’s fastest lady.
HELP KEEP JENNY IN THE BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2010…
We would like to offer you the opportunity to contribute to Jenny’s racing as we head ever closer to the close season. The team will be working harder than ever in an attempt to meet the finances that she will need to remain competitive in 2010, so in support of your favourite female rider, please feel free to make a contribution and have the satisfaction that you have made a difference, no matter how large or small..
For further information and to donate please click the link below
http://www.jennytinmouth.com/donate.html
