O’Gorman back on top at Donington

BY GILES SPENCER
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

Casey O’Gorman made it a nearly perfect meeting in the fifth round of the British Talent Cup at Donington Park last weekend with two wins and a second place finish.

The Erith schoolboy hasn’t raced since his horror crash in practice for round two of the championship at Knockhill, Scotland in July.

The BTC youngsters would get three races over the weekend with the addition of a cancelled race from the previous round at Thruxton.

Still recovering from his injuries, the Sixty Seven Sports Management rider qualified his Microlise Cresswell Racing Honda NSF250R in sixth on the end of the second row.

For the first of Saturday’s two races, O’Gorman got a good start, cautious not to end up in the gravel trap again and broke away in a five rider group battling for the lead, headed by number 57, City Lifting rider, Johnny Garness.

Having battled through to second, the constant slipstreaming and passing in the group allowed Garness to pull a two second gap which he held to the line with O’Gorman taking the next step on the podium on his return ride.

Race two and O’Gorman slotted in behind Garness off the lights with the pair pulling nearly a second on the rest of the pack over the first lap before the Irish born youngster made his move into the lead on lap three, holding it to the flag in another nail-biting five way scrap for his first win since round one.

Starting from tenth on the grid for Sunday’s race, the 14 year old made his usual lightning start to move up to sixth by the end of the first lap.

A ten way scrap for the lead soon entailed with O’Gorman in the thick of it, working his way towards the front, taking the lead on lap 14 of 22.

The lead changed more times than the British weather in the next eight laps with O’Gorman cementing his position at the head of the pack, leading home his team mate Kiyano Veijer by 0.379 seconds for his fourth win of the season.

“The Honda British Talent Cup comeback went well.” said O’Gorman.

“The Bennetts British Superbike Championship physio team worked magic all weekend and my team gave me what felt like the strongest bike on the grid so I felt confident despite starting from tenth for yesterday’s (Sunday) race.

“The (last) race was an epic eleven rider pack covered by less than three seconds for most of the race and 1.5 seconds at some points. I got a good start and settled into sixth but dropped to eighth at one point and back up to second after half way.

“I was hoping to break away with the leader but got dragged back into the pack. I got into the lead with one and a half laps to go and made the best use of the back markers on the last lap to cross the line first, just ahead of my team mate for a Creswell Racing 1-2.”

O’Gorman sits in fourth place in the championship on 120 points, 45 behind leader Evan Belford.

The next round of the championship takes place at Silverstone on the 27-29th August.

Photos by Camiphotography