Express & Star

Podiums and personal-best laps for Tividale ace Wright

Another personal best lap time and a podium finish ensured Pete Wright maintained third place in the championship with just two rounds remaining.

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The Tividale ace enjoyed some of his most enjoyable racing of the No Limits campaign so far at Cadwell Park, where he battled in all four Cup 600 class races, coming away with a third and three fourth-placed finishes.

Such was the pace around the iconic Lincolnshire circuit, every race was nose-to-tail with podium positions being decided on the final lap – and sometimes the final corner.

Gloomy skies greeted Wright and his Double Two Racing team during the opening test day but by qualifying Wright had decided to use a set of good scrub tyres to see what he could do.

And after taking on board a few tips from NSF rider Gary Walton, he posted a PB on the final lap of qualifying, with a 1:35.6, which saw him start third in class and sixth overall for the opening race.

Once the lights went out, Wright got off to a flyer and led his Cup 600 rivals into Coppice and round Charlie’s for the first few laps.

Scott Stevens, who would go on to claim four cup wins, eventually managed to squeeze up the inside on the brakes at the end of the Park Straight.

A lap later championship leader Ben Wotton out dragged Wright along the start-finish straight, which demoted Wright to third at the chequered flag.

Starting from the middle of row three for the second race, he again got a great start and was second into Coppice with Wotton close behind and Joavan Martin in fourth.

"I managed to hold Ben off for a couple of laps before he got a great drive out out of Charlie’s and used the extra grunt of the Triumph to get past at the left kink of Park," said Wright.

"Joavan was now just half a second behind and by lap five we were already coming across backmarkers.

"We caught them at Coppice and I had to go round the outside but the lapped rider started drifting out on the apex, which slowed me up and allowed Joavan to take the faster line up the inside and into third place, which is where we finished."

Wright was able to get another lightning start in the third race and was followed by Martin for four laps.

After getting stuck behind Robert Childs' "missile of an R6", Wright made a minor mistake that was enough to let Martin through.

The Tividale rider tagged on the back and kept up withthe pace until coming into the left hander before the mountain when he hit a neutral and, with no engine braking, just about managed to stop the bike before hitting the grass.

With too much time lost and drizzle now falling at the end of Park, he bought it home for another fourth.

"Race four was an absolute epic," said Wright. "Starting from the outside of row four, I got another good start – but this time so did everyone else.

"Robert Childs entered into Coppice just ahead of Joavan with me inches behind and it would continue like this, nose to tail, for the entire race.

"Even though I posted the second quickest lap of the Cup 600 race – and set a new PB of 1:35.3 – I just couldn’t find the opportunity to overtake.

"But it was a truly thrilling race and finishing fourth again gave me the consistent points to keep Double Two Racing third in the championship.

"Thanks as usual to No Limits for a faultless event along with the Marshalls , medical staff, track officials and TSL ,

"Thanks to Dean Ellison for some excellent pointers on Sunday and to our amazing sponsors DRC Race Leathers, Properly Protected Insurance, Putoline Distribution UK, REVS Suspension Services, Cradley Kawasaki, RUS Scaffolding, MPW, Speedway Motorcycles, Novol Paints, motorbykebitz.co.uk, TAG Speed, nlr tyre support, as3 performance, profibre, mbf home improvements ltd and eXPRESS & Star newspaper."