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The Real Cycle People
44 George Street, Perth

Thruxton 13-15 April 2007

Only six days after the first race of the season at Brands Hatch, the fast and bumpy 2.36 mile Thruxton circuit was the venue for race two of this year’s 125GP Championship.

Robbie came to the Hampshire track in confident mood after his 2nd place finish there in 2006, and all the signs were good as he ended first practice on Friday in pole position with a half second advantage over the chasing pack.

Unfortunately second practice proved disastrous both for Robbie and for his KRP team. The idea behind sending Robbie and team mates Anthony Rogers and Tom Hayward out on track together was to allow them to improve their lap times by working together. However, running in close formation gives little margin for error, and when Tom backed off the throttle and Anthony clipped his back wheel, Robbie had nowhere to go to avoid his fallen colleagues.

The freak crash left all three riders injured - Robbie with torn shoulder muscles and Anthony nursing a sprained wrist, while Tom’s round was over as he was too badly beaten up to take to the track again during the weekend.

Saturday qualifying saw Robbie struggling with his injury on what is a physically demanding track. He ended the session in 10th but other injuries and retirements meant that he finally lined up in 8th place on the second row of a revised grid.

A poor start to Sunday’s race dropped Robbie down to around 12th, but the field quickly closed up when the safety car was deployed. When the lights went out and the car pulled in, Robbie got his head down and quickly worked his way up to 4th. As at Brands a week earlier, his charge brought both a fastest lap and a lap record, but on this occasion the effort was to be in vain.

On the sixth lap Robbie ran slightly wide at the fast Seagrave bend, the bumpy surface unsettled the bike, and Robbie – struggling to hold on due to his injuries – was thrown from the Honda. Luckily his fall didn’t further aggravate his already damaged shoulder, but it was nonetheless an unfortunate end to a promising and slightly bizarre weekend.

After two rounds in a week, a fortnight break should give Robbie sufficient time to get back to full fitness before returning to the track for round three at Silverstone on the 27th – 29th of April.

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