Frustrating start for O’Gorman as he crashes out of Rnd1 of FIM JuniorGP Championship at Estoril

BY GILES SPENCER
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

Erith motorcycle racer Casey O’Gorman finished the opening round of the FIM JuniorGP championship in the gravel as he crashed out on the final lap in Estoril, Portugal at the weekend.

The 17 year old riding for the Estrella Galicia 0’0 team started the weekend well, going fourth and seventh fastest in Friday’s practice sessions before qualifying in sixth place on the outside of the second row after struggling with setup.

Away from the lights for the 16 lap race and O’Gorman stormed through the pack to take second place as they entered the second lap, only to immediately drop down the field as he clipped the back wheel of team mate Rico Salmela as they tipped into turn one.

Quickly re-grouping, O’Gorman recovered to fourth in a three way battle for second with Salmela and Malaysian rider Hakim Danish.

With nine laps to go, race leader and pole man Brian Uriate was merely a dot in the distance with O’Gorman still in a fierce three bike battle for the remaining podium places having dropped the rest of the pack.

With the time counting down, O’Gorman made his move into second with five laps remaining but it was short lived as Salmela drafted past the Irishman down the back straight.

Final lap and disaster struck as O’Gorman attempted to dive inside Salmela into turn four but found himself squeezed out and collected the back wheel of the Finnish rider’s Honda and was sent tumbling into the gravel to end his race so close to the finish.

Spaniard Uriate took the win from Danish with Salmela taking the final podium position in third.

O’Gorman took to social media to say, “Sorry to my team, we made the perfect race until the last lap.

“I had my plan and knew what position I wanted to be in, unfortunately I made a mistake which brought an end to my race but this is racing, the most important thing is that we are fast and could fight at the front all race long, even at a track I struggled at last year.

“I’m excited for the next race, let’s keep working, good things take time.”

The next round of the championship will be held at Jerez in Spain on the 1st June.

Photos by lifebelucky and Monlau Competition