Third time’s not a charm for O’Gorman in Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup at Mugello

BY GILES SPENCER
giles@slpmedia.co.uk

The luck of the Irish deserted Erith teenager Casey O’Gorman in round three of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup last weekend in Mugello, Italy, with two non scoring races.

The weekend started off disastrously for the 14 year old with his flight being cancelled forcing an overnight drive to make it to the circuit in time for Friday practice.

Things started to pick up as O’Gorman went third quickest in practice, then qualified a strong seventh on the grid after setting the time by himself with no-one to get a tow from down the straights.

Race one on Saturday and the blistering sun had been replaced by a soaking and treacherously slippery track.

Settling into a good pace, O’Gorman managed to break away from the pack whilst others around him fell, opening up a gap of four seconds to his pursuers before his 250cc KTM suddenly spat him off on the exit to a corner ending his race and winning chance.

Sunday’s race was held in much better conditions and O’Gorman was keen to make amends for the previous day.

In a series where all the machines are supposedly identical, O’Gorman was consistently in the bottom three through the speed traps, up to 17mph in some cases and the youngster knew he had to push hard to stay with the leaders.

O’Gorman got a good start and moved up to fifth place by the second corner but paid the price for pushing too hard on cold tyres, immediately lost the front, sliding off into the gravel and remounting to finish down in 22nd, 50 seconds behind the race winner.

“In the beginning I was behind someone (in race one), I was staying behind them to keep my bike warm, then when he crashed out my bike went to 45 degrees and it’s meant to be 75.

“I came out of the third corner and it started spluttering and went from no power to full power and it highsided me.

“It’s a big shame. I felt good on the bike, I was not pushing too hard.”

O’Gorman has now dropped to fifth in the standings on 58 points, 43 behind leader Jose Rueda.

The next round of the championship will be held at the Sachsenring in Germany on the 18-19 June.