Sam Burman, riding the Penrith Motorcycles Yamaha TZ250, and her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125 has had a weekend of mixed fortunes at the high speed circuit of Snetterton. Competing in the ACU National 250cc Championship, and the Refined Recruitment 125GP Championship respectively, she encountered technical issues with the Yamaha TZ250, but secured her first win of the season on the Honda RS125, before having the misfortune of an accident, which would end her weekend early.
During Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions, Burman was experiencing mechanical problems with the Yamaha TZ250, which were proving difficult to resolve, preventing her from establishing any kind of rhythm whilst out on the circuit, leaving her in 21st place at the end of qualifying.
Burman’s first race of the weekend was the Refined Recruitment 125GP qualification race. The grid order as usual, was decided on Championship positions, with Burman being placed on the front row. Making a good start to the race, she became involved in an exciting battle with Alistair Ray for second place, however early pace setter John Lea was to fall, leaving Burman and Ray to fight for the victory. As the race entered a thrilling climax, it would be Burman who took the chequered flag, a mere 0.02 seconds ahead as they crossed the finish line. Much to her delight, Burman had also achieved the fastest lap of the race, with a time of 1 minute 19.74 seconds, at an average speed of 88.12 mph.
Switching to the Penrith Motorcycles Yamaha TZ250, for the ACU National 250cc Championship race, Burman would start from 21st position on the grid. However, the race was stopped due to an incident, with Burman lying in 18th position at the time of the stoppage. The race was re-run over a shortened distance of five laps, with grid positions being decided by the finishing order of the halted race. With the technical issues still plaguing her, Burman finished in 16th position, with some thinking to do to resolve the problems.
Due to winning the qualification race, Burman would find herself sat in pole position for the first of the Refined Recruitment 125GP Championship races. Making a less than perfect start, she would come back at her rivals in the first corner, securing second place. As the race progressed, she was having a good dice with Dan Moreton, in pursuit of race leader, Alistair Ray. Such was their pace; they both bridged a three second deficit to overcome Ray. However, it was to be Moreton, making slightly lighter work of the back markers, who took the win. Burman wasn’t too unhappy though; her points haul had given her the overnight lead in the Championship.
The following morning the riders were greeted with damp conditions. Burman was still trying to get to the bottom of the problem with the Yamaha TZ250, and called upon the experience of Barry Utting for advice.
Burman’s first race of the day, as per usual was the Refined Recruitment 125GP qualification race. Conditions had deteriorated, so everybody would be running on a full wet set up. Burman made an excellent get away, making the most of her front row grid position, and was to lead the field around the first lap. This unfortunately was to be short lived, as entering the fast right hand corner at the Bomb Hole, she lost the front end of the machine, without warning, and crashed heavily, getting tangled to some extent with the bike. Shortly afterwards, the race was red flagged, due to several incidents around the circuit in the difficult conditions. She didn’t feel like she had done anything wrong or anything different to the previous lap, but in such unforgiving conditions, there was nothing she could do except pick herself up and assess the damage.
Burman visited the circuit medical centre, who diagnosed a suspected broken ankle. The bike had fortunately come off with less damage, and it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to fix.
So, it was off to Norwich Hospital for further assessment, the result of which is that she has soft tissue and ligament damage to her ankle, which will require rest to enable a quick recovery.
Unable to take part in the remainder of the meeting, it was a disappointing end to Burman’s weekend, but she is in high spirits and can’t wait to be back in action very soon.
Speaking afterwards, Sam said:
“It’s our first win of the year, and it felt pretty good to be back at the front end in a really close and exciting race. I was also pleased with the final race and really enjoyed chasing down the leader. It was a shame about the crash, at least we were leading again, it’s just frustrating. I’ll mend, just hope it’s soon, so we can be back out this weekend riding the 250, with which we hope we have overcome the problems experienced last weekend.
