MotorsportsSport

O’Gorman gains valuable knowledge from European racing experience

By Giles Spencer
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

Casey O’Gorman endured a hard time against the top riders in Europe when he secured a wild card ride in the FIM CEV Repsol European Talent Cup at Jerez in Spain over the weekend but still came away on a positive note.

A long slog lay ahead for the Erith schoolboy with two races on the Saturday and one on Sunday.
Fresh from victory in the British Talent Cup, the 13 year old steadily brought his lap times down from 1.52’s in the practice sessions to 1.51.060 in qualifying, placing him 18th on the grid out of 41 riders, despite not getting out with the fast group due to a burnt out starter motor.

For the first race on Saturday, O’Gorman got off the line well, jostling for position in a hectic field before dropping a couple of spots over the first two laps.

Finding his feet, he moved back up through the field to 17th and is catching the group of riders ahead when disaster happens as a small wire broke bringing the bike and his race to a premature end.

With only a two hour rest O’Gorman is out again in the Spanish heat for race 2 and makes a good start off the line and by lap three was up to 16th.

Two laps later and a big moment for O’Gorman lost him the good feeling he had with the bike and he dropped back down to 20th.

Eleven of fifteen laps down and O’Gorman’s up to 19th but with a four second gap in front and behind him it seemed like he was in for a lonely ride.

However, barely a lap later and O’Gorman’s dropped off the back of 18th place and is being rapidly caught by the three riders behind him.

Last time around and two riders pounce to demote O’Gorman to 21st and despite a storming last lap, he just loses out on a top 20 finish in the drag to the line by 0.021 seconds.

Looking for a better result in Sunday’s race, O’Gorman, made a great jump off the lights only for disaster to strike in the first corner as a rider ahead made a mistake, careering across the tarmac, sending several riders off the track and the luckless Londoner into the gravel to end his weekend.

O’Gorman took to social media to say, “Leaving Jerez in one piece having done over 700 kilometres with the best rider’s in the world. Improved my lap times by 2 seconds from when I was hear in March with the @britishtalentcup and less than a second off the fastest rider in the @fimcevrepsol.

“Today’s (Sunday’s) race ended early for me at turn 1. I got the best start and was into the leading group but another rider crossed my path and I had to brake hard losing the front and going down. I got hit on the head by another riders front wheel and they ran over my arm; my bike also hit me hard but I’m ok thanks to my @drcleathersuk leathers and @kyteurope helmet.

“Massive thanks to everyone who have made this trip possible: Sebastian @sbracing Bob @fwrltd Simona@kyteurope , Alan @rg_crashprotection, John @microlisecresswellracing, Juaian Jose Javier@cuna_campeones.

“Hopefully I can do the last CEV round at Valencia MotoGP.”

O’Gorman will be back in action this weekend (4-6th September) in the British Talent Cup at Silverstone, hoping to keep up his winning form.

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