Horsman narrowly misses podium on Moto2 debut
Racing for a new team on a new bike he ended the weekend with 20 championship points and plenty of confidence for round two.
Horsman moved up to the Moto2 class in British Superbikes Championship in 2020. In 2019, the 19 year old finished a superb year as runner-up in both the British Talent Cup and British Motostar Moto3 series.
Now racing on a Chassis Factory Moto2 for Nova Go Racing team, Horsman qualified 8th in the Moto2 category. With the Moto2 bikes racing alongside the Supersport class he started 23rd on the combined grid.
In Saturday’s 20 lap race, Horsman made a blistering, making up four places of the start line and moving into 8th place in the GP2 class. He managed to open a gap back to Jake Archer, one of his GP2 rivals and concentrated on closing the gap to Joey Thompson on the Spirit Moto Corsa ahead.
At the halfway stage of the race, Horsman had caught and overtaken Thompson to move into 6th overall. He then went on to pass Dan Jones moving up to 5th in the category.
As he continued to push on he got into a battle with team mate Tom Oliver. The two eventually found themselves competing for the final podium position with Horsman missing out by just 0.094 seconds at the line.
The grid for race two on Sunday was based on the fastest lap times from race one. Horsman lined up 17th on the combined Supersport/GP2 grid.
Although Horsman made a good start he was unable to make the same kind of progress as he did in race one. He struggled with the bike settings and gearing, spending a long time battling with Jake Archer and eventually crossed the finish line in 9th position.
Horsman took 20 points away from round one and looks forward to the next round of British GP2 Cup is at Snetterton on the weekend of 21st to 23rd August.
“I want to thank Nova Go Racing for the opportunity and continued support.” Horsman said, “This is a completely new category and you have to ride the Moto2 very differently to the Moto3 I was used to. The year has been difficult for everyone with the COVID 19 virus so I am just glad to be riding again. To come so close to a podium in my first race was fantastic. I am already looking forward to the Snetterton round.”
Words: Jeremy Ryan
Images: Bonnie Lane
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