O’Gorman impresses in Bol d’Or Classic endurance debut

BY GILES SPENCER
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

Erith motorcycle racer Casey O’Gorman rounded off a busy summer schedule by competing in the Bol d’Or Classic endurance race at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France last weekend.

The sixteen year old Red Bull Rookie and European Talent Cup regular made a one off appearance in the Pirelli Junior Superstock at Thruxton in round seven of the British Superbike Championship, riding for the LAMI OMG Racing Team.

Despite having never ridden the Yamaha R6 or Thruxton circuit, O’Gorman qualified in second only 0.017 seconds off pole.

However, any chances of challenging for the win evaporated before the race even started with rival, Finley Arscott, wiping the youngster out shortly after the flag dropped for the warm up lap of the race as the two collided on the straight.

With only a week to get fit before round six of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, O’Gorman qualified down in 19th place on the grid before riding through to ninth in race one.

Race two looked promising as O’Gorman quickly moved into the top six, setting a few fastest laps on his way there but pushed a little too hard and crashed out of contention.

His ride at Thruxton had done enough to impress the bosses at OMG Racing UK who snapped up the schoolboy to contest the remainder of the British Supersport Championship onboard their Yamaha R6.

O’Gorman headed to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire for round eight of the British Supersport Championship at the end of August.

Once again, a new circuit for O’Gorman, the tricky, technical track bit back in free practice one, spitting O’Gorman off the bike high into the air and despite matching his time in the second session, was declared unfit to race on the Sunday.

After discovering a small pelvic fracture O’Gorman decided to miss the last round of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup where he ended up eighth in the points and concentrate on recovery for an invitation by team boss Ian Martin to ride on a Honda RC30 for TEAM bike in the Classic Bol d’Or over weekend of the 15-17 September.

Having familiarised himself with the legendary 80s superbike in test several weeks previously, O’Gorman was quickly up to pace taking pole position by over a second for the two, two hour races held over the weekend alongside superbike veteran and double world champion team mate, Stephane Mertens.

Starting the race Friday night, O’Gorman pulled a 45 second lead in the first leg and felt so confident the team decided to send him out on a double stint on the Saturday.

Starting from pole position on  a wet track on dry tyres, everything was going to plan with O’Gorman taking the lead again but disaster was to strike with five minutes to go as a technical issue forced them to retire.