Rounding off six consecutive weekends of race action, Sam Burman has had another impressive run of results at latest NGRRC round held over the last weekend at Anglesey, North Wales. Her most notable success came in Sunday’s ACU National 250cc Championship race, where she battled her way through to a points finish from a lowly grid position to cross the line in a creditable 13th place.
Having decided to attend the test day on the Friday, Burman would use this purely to gain experience of the circuit and to make sure the Penrith Motorcycles Yamaha TZ250 was in good shape after the problems at the previous meeting. She managed the best part of four good sessions on track with the bike feeling strong, until close to the end of the last session when the crank seized. Quickly pulling the clutch, she avoided crashing, but upon inspection there was some inevitable engine damage resulting in her having to borrow a crank for the weekends racing. Fellow competitor Daniel Jackson came up with a loan crank, so a huge thank you must go to him.
With the engine rebuilt, Saturday morning greeted the competitors with windy and wet conditions. Both free practice sessions went without incident for Burman on the Penrith Motorcycles Yamaha TZ250 and her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125 respectively.
The qualifying session for the ACU National 250cc Championship competitors started off in damp conditions with some riders on wet weather tyres and some on dry weather tyres. Due to the damp patches around the circuit Burman had elected to run wet weather tyres, but towards the closing stages the track surface would improve. Making the decision to come in for slicks, the team went to work at once, turning her around on fresh rubber in 3 minutes 10 seconds, which impressed all who were watching on in pit lane. As the slick tyres were brand new they needed scrubbing in which proved difficult in the conditions, and as the session was rapidly coming to a close, Burman unfortunately wouldn’t manage a proper chance at a flying lap, which would disappointingly leave her down the grid in 31st position.
For the opening Refined Recruitment 125GP race, Burman would line up on the front row of the grid, which was, as always, decided by Championship positions. As the lights went out to start the race, she made one of her trademark brilliant starts to slot into second position. Further around the opening lap she would put a move on Alistair Ray to take the lead in determined style. Later in the race she would be overtaken by two riders to leave her in third place, and with the tyres beginning to go off towards the finish, it would prove difficult for Burman to challenge, with the leading two pulling away, and with the wind and mist rolling in off the sea, she would have to settle for third place on this occasion.
Her final action of Saturday was to be the weekend’s opening ACU National 250cc race. Starting from 31st position on the grid, Burman made a better start than of late, getting the 250 off the line well. This gave her immediate confidence, as she pulled through the field to finish in 22nd position, latterly having some good battles in a group of five riders. Her times were pleasing too, her best time of 1 minute 14.67 seconds comparable with riders several places higher up the order.
Sunday was a much better day weather wise, with a dry track for all the competitors to do battle on. During morning warm up, Burman would be in fine form, being fastest of all on her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125, and fifth fastest onboard the Penrith Motorcycles Yamaha TZ250.
In her opening race of the day, the qualification race for the Refined Recruitment 125GP Championship, Burman made another good start from the front row of the grid and take second position, and mirroring her previous day’s performance she would take the lead shortly afterwards, holding on at the head of the field for a number of laps. Entering the last lap the lead group of five riders were very close, Burman exchanging places with Sam Hornsey several times. Whilst battling for the win, Burman would encounter a big moment, almost resulting in a crash, but staying on in impressive style, she salvaged fifth place at the chequered flag. It was a case of what might have been, but Burman had enjoyed the challenge and made the smallest of errors whilst challenging for the win.
The main ACU National 250cc Championship race run over 20 laps, was next up on the schedule, and what a cracking race for Burman it turned out to be. Starting down the grid once more in 31st place, she would be boxed in a little at the start, but had a terrific race to pull through the field in superb form, passing riders at every opportunity, to catch Paul Hedison and battle with him for 12th position towards the end of the race. She would eventually finish in 13th position, but had shaved almost 1.7 seconds off her lap time of the previous day, to be lapping only 2 seconds per lap slower than race winner Mark Davies. Her times were comparable to riders well inside the top ten, an achievement that pleased Burman immensely.
The final outing of the day was the Refined Recruitment 125GP Championship points race, Burman this time starting from fifth position due to the earlier result in the qualification race. Making a decent start she maintained fifth position on the opening lap, moving up to second place over the coming laps. With Sam Hornsey leading, Burman would be battling with Jamie Harris and Rowan Miller for second place. With the contest coming down to the last lap, she would squeeze up the inside of both on the brakes, but lost the front mid corner sliding out, and taking Rowan Miller down too, in which could only be described as a racing incident. Jamie Harris must have been caught up in the drama too, as he narrowly missed out on second place, which was taken by Jason Douglas.
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