Sam Burman has returned to action over the recent weekend competing in the Thundersport GP3 series at the high speed circuit of Snetterton, after a short mid-season break in her very busy racing schedule. The weekend unfortunately didn’t go to plan, and a disappointed Burman returned only one points scoring finish over the three races.
 
During Saturday’s two timed qualifying sessions, Burman, riding her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125, chose to scrub in two new front tyres, one in each session. In the process, during the second and final session it was discovered that the tyre had appeared to go down on the rim, preventing her from setting the lap times she is capable of, thus leaving her in an unfamiliar 20th position on the grid for the upcoming races.
 
Starting from the outside of row five for the superpole race, Burman made a fantastic start, and soon was in the thick of the action, enjoying some good battles to come through the pack. With some tyre issues still in evidence she tried her hardest to ride around the problems and towards the end of the race she would be dicing with Ewan Gray, overtaking him on the last lap, to finish in a creditable eleventh place.
 
After significant discussion during Saturday evening, Burman took to the grid for the first of Sunday’s races. Once again starting from 20th position on the grid, she would immediately experience some issues, with the bike running wide entering corners, not being able to hold the line, and losing time as a result. After several laps with the problem, and not being able to realistically battle for position, she decided that to retire to the pits was the only sensible option.
 
Whilst disappointed with how things were going, she started to consider whether the fact she was using her contact lenses for the first time at a race meeting, was probably having some bearing on the outcome. The more she gave thought to this, the more she realized that this was a likely reason for some of the issues she was experiencing. Her peripheral vision was considerably different using the contact lenses, an experience that she would need to acclimatize to quickly.
 
In the last race of the day, Burman reverted to wearing her glasses, just to see if the difference was significant. She was still not performing at her optimum, but drawing a comparison, she felt convinced that her vision was better while wearing the contact lenses, so perseverance with them will surely only bring improvements in her riding. She rode to 22nd position at the chequered flag, but wishes to put the weekend behind her as she enters a busy few weeks in her racing schedule.   
 
“Snetterton was a disappointing weekend for us, I had high hopes for this weekend and was looking forward to trying my contact lenses, which I now realize will take a bit of getting used to. This wasn’t our only problem, but we now must look ahead to next weekend and being back on the pace at Pembrey," said Burman.