THE DIFFICULT wet conditions at Knockhill had a negative impact on Solihull’s Liam Delves after he was made to settle for a brace of sixth-place finishes in the HEL Performance Motostar British championships on Sunday.
The Smiths Wood Sports college student was contesting the two Moto3 Standard class that is run within the grid of the Moto3 GP riders with each class scoring points in their own championship.
Qualifying did not go quite to plan for Delves who was to start the first race from seventh place in his class and on row eight of the mixed grid of riders although he did ride well during the session and was only 0.5 seconds away from pole position.
As the short sprint race got underway, the 15-year-old immediately shot off the start line to take up fifth place and was embroiled in a race-long battle for position with half a dozen riders.
He dropped a place back to sixth and then to seventh but fought his way back through to sixth on lap 14 of 16. But again Delves was forced back to seventh on the penultimate lap before fighting back once again to cross the finish line in sixth place to pick up ten championship points.
Delves should have started the feature race from a ninth row grid position but the team needed to change to wet weather tyres after the warm up lap when the rain began to fall. This meant that he was late getting to the grid and he was banished to the back.
As the lights went out Delves made a fantastic start and moved through to sixth place on the first lap, but on lap three the teenager made contact with a slower rider and ran off the track, across the grass and through the gravel track before re-joining the race down in 11th place.
He got his head down and rode like the wind to make up places and by lap seven of 22 he was back up into sixth place.
This is where Delves remained throughout the remainder of the race to pick up another ten championship points, bringing his total to 56 and putting him up into seventh place in the rider standings.
“What an eventful race that turned out to be,” said Delves. “We decided to go with wet tyres at the last minute but unfortunately missed the pit lane exit time.
“I was made to start from the back of the grid but got a great start and was soon with the leaders. But then I collided with a slower rider which forced me into the gravel across the grass and straight through the Rock Oil sign.
“I rejoined the race dead last but I was so angry with myself I got my head down and crossed the finish line in sixth place. I would like to thank all my team and sponsors and all my followers for their support again this weekend.”
Delves is next back in action for the next leg of racing at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend of July 9-10.
