Sam Burman once again had a successful day’s racing last Saturday competing at Oulton Park, Cheshire, in round 12 of the Refined Recruitment 125GP series, run by the NG Road Racing Club. Riding her Honda RS125, she gained two top five finishes and went on to take fourth place in the Open 400 race.
 
Burman had been looking forward to returning to Oulton Park, and to the challenge that the circuit holds for the riders. Free practice, however, was cut short, due to an incident, meaning that none of the riders had much information to take to the grid for the opening race.
 
With Championship points determining the front row of the grid for race one, effectively the ‘qualifing’ race; Burman took her position on the outside of the front row.

Making a trademark good start, she was in the lead into Old Hall corner, but making one or two mistakes in trying to hold the position, soon found herself in fourth place, and unable to ride at the pace of the leaders, one of which was regular BSB front runner Jay Lewis.

Running consistent 1 minute 55 second laps, a personal best for her at Oulton Park, Burman was comfortable with fourth place until unfortunately was held up by a back marker, allowing fifth placed Neil Durham to close in, and eventually just beat her to the chequered flag, leaving Burman in fifth place.
 
Race two, the Championship points race, was stopped after one lap, due to an accident that happened just ahead of Burman. She was lucky not to be involved in the incident, and also relieved to get a second chance, the first start hadn’t been one of her best.
 
The re-started race was over five laps, and again, Burman didn’t get away well, but nonetheless settled into fourth place, a position she would hold to the chequered flag, again lapping consistently in similar times to earlier in the day. The handful of points also promoted Burman to third position in the Championship, with one round to go. Both races were won by Jay Lewis.
 
Her final outing of the day was in the Open 400 race, which was combined with the ‘B’ Final of the 600’s. She thoroughly enjoyed the battles on track with her RS125 having such different characteristics to the larger, more powerful machines, which made for some exciting racing. She completed the race, again in fourth position, with a big smile on her face, as she had loved every minute mixing it with the big bikes!
 
“The weekend was great again, and I was happy with the lap times, as again there was an improvement," said Sam. "I know we need further improvement, but with another 20 laps or so, I feel I could have been on the pace. I really enjoyed the final race, with the bigger bikes, and wasn’t too upset with the results. Thanks to all.”