JDF Racing’s Callan Cooper put in a solid weekend’s work at Brands Hatch to secure three podium places in the first two rounds of the ThundersportGB Aprilia 450RRV championship.
Making his debut on the V-twin, Cooper, who rode for Mark Hodgson’s RCD Motorsports team in last year’s BSB 125GP series, holds third place in the championship with plenty of racing ahead.
Cooper (15), from the Isle of Man, a former British motocross champion, made his road racing debut in the Superteens, winning six races in 2010 and setting the lap record at Mallory Park. Too lanky and too heavy to be competitive on 125, Cooper jumped at the opportunity to ride for John Davies on the Aprilia, and the pairing looks like prospering.
In qualifying, Cooper was disappointed with seventh on the grid but quickly got in the grove in testing conditions in the first race on Saturday, overnight rain making the damp Indy circuit difficult to read. With the big issue being whether to run on wet or dries, Cooper took some good scalps in notching third, 1.1secs off the race winner and setting the third best lap time.
In the second race, Cooper was fourth on a drier track, just under two tenths off the race winner and with the second fastest time by a mere three thousands of a second. Overnight the temperatures plummeted to just above freezing and the rain belted down, so it was wets all day in absolutely vile conditions.
Cooper warmed up by riding the Supertwins/Minitwins and F400 opener, taking a quality third place after having to start at the rear of the 30-rider grid, his progress through the field being meteoric, and just another few yards would have seen him take second place.
In the first RRV450 race of round two Cooper, who was second on grid after setting the second best lap on Saturday, hit the front on lap four of 12 and held on until two to go when he wisely settled for staying on the Aprilia rather than parting company with it during an epic struggle with Jordan Hole and Tom Oliver.
Cooper was second all the way in the final encounter of the weekend, testing the race winner repeatedly without over doing things but nevertheless setting the fastest lap of the race.
