TOM WEEDEN#11 "The Brat "

After a poor testing period plagued with setup and electrical problems, a poor shake down race at Mallory with an under powered bike and lots of lead attached. Tom Weeden, the 15 year old 125 racer, who moved up to BSB 125 this year has now at last had a very respectable start to the 2009 BSB season. Having moved up from Thundersport GB, Tom has found the pace much faster at BSB compared to club level. But he so far, with two rounds gone, he has managed to get to grips with this pace. After rece… Continue

Thundersport Donington Park Saturday18th


Qualifying 1 and 2

The day started badly; the bike just didn’t want to start. After several attempts at starting it on the stand, they managed to start it by bump starting. As the bike coughed and spluttered into life, lots of fuel spat out of the exhaust like a hosepipe. The exhaust was full of fuel, so Tom’s dad put stuck some rag on the end of the exhaust and revved the bike. As he did this all the fuel inside the end can spat out of the end can joi… Continue

Tom Weeden, the young 14 year old from Maidstone, is hoping to finish the season on a high this weekend. He travels to Donnington Park for a 1-day meet for the last round of Thundersport GB on Saturday 18th, and then on to Mallory Park for Sunday for the prestigious Mallory Park Race of the Year.
On Sunday Tom will score points for EMRA and Thundersport GB in a combined meeting.
Tom hopes to score well over the two days, as he is currently in 2nd in Thundersport and 3rd in Emra.
After a relative… Continue

4th October Thruxton NG

Tom came to Thruxton with one aim in mind: to learn the track, as he had never been there before. Tom doesn’t race with NG normally but he needed to learn the track for the future and track time is tight at Thruxton.
Tom arrived late on Friday and had no chance to walk the track, leaving him with only a 10-minute session on Saturday morning to learn it.
Tom went out in the dry morning session and attempted to learn the track; by the end of it he had learnt most of it but… Continue

Thundersport GB Anglesey 13/14th September



Going into the race meeting Tom felt confident, as he was consistently posting quick times on the Friday test day. 1st qualifying was quite good and Tom was 5th fastest on a large grid.
In the second qualifying session Tom improved and moved up to the edge of the front row in 4th place.
In the 14 lap Superpole race Tom got a good start from 4th on the grid and was 2nd into the first corner behind championship leader Ed Rendell. Tom tagged onto the ba… Continue

EMRA 31st August Mallory Park

Tom went out in qualifying on a cloudy, foggy, but dry morning at the Mallory Park circuit and just took it easy for a few laps to run in a new piston. Then Tom started to put in some quick laps, but didn’t push to hard as he knows his starts are so good that I really doesn’t matter where he qualifies, as long as its somewhere near the front. In the end he qualified 6th.
Tom was 7th in the championship before this round due bad luck so far. He had had a detonated p… Continue

Pembrey Thundersport GB 23rd 24th August

After a 4-hour trip Tom arrived at the Welsh track, Pembrey on Thursday night. Tom had been to Pembrey before, but on a Jawa 70.
On Friday Test day Tom went out to learn the track and improved on his times every session, but didn’t really like the track that much for some unknown reason hoping to improve in qualifying. But at least it had stayed dry.
On Saturday he didn’t qualify as well as he had hoped, ending up 7th on the grid after the 2nd qualifying… Continue

Thundersport GB Rd 9 Mallory Park 27th July
The weather was hot and sunny, and there were 22 people on the grid, including 5 BSB 125 riders. Tom qualified 8th on the grid. But got off to a terrible start in the race and was about 15th going into the first corner. Tom wasn’t worried about this as it was a long 20 lap race and he had time to work his way up. Over the next 10 laps Tom found himself in 7th. He overtook the 6th place man Adam Robinson, on the brakes going into the hairpin. But… Continue

On a wet and windy Mallory Park Tom got his Emra championship back on track after his 3 DNF’s so far this season with Emra. One was when the chain snapped in the assembly area, and the two others when he crashed in the first race (round 3) and ground his little finger away going into Edwina’s and one poor finish (due to detonating a piston at Round 1). Toms dad thought that Tom would be slightly cautious of Edwina’s after the crash, but Tom wasn’t cautious at all round there. (So no ghosts then)… Continue

Qualifying

Qualifying 1 went well and Tom put in some consistently quick lap times despite his injured left hand. He managed to qualify 4th fastest.
In qualifying 2 Tom bettered his time but not enough; the combined qualifying result meant Tom dropped to 6th on the grid.
Tom didn’t worry about this, as he was confident he could get on the front row in the Superpole race.


Superpole Race 1 16 laps

Tom got a good start from 6th on the grid and was 3rd into turn one. He overtook Adam Dudley by s… Continue