Bike torment as sad Tunny pays price of costly errors
THE penultimate round of the 2019 British Superstock Championship turned out to be a tumultuous affair for Huddersfield’s Tom Tunstall, with very changeable weather conditions plus a series of issues making life hard.
With their third visit of the year to Donington Park in Leicestershire, the highly competitive Superstock 1000 grid was once again over subscribed with 43 riders vying for position.
But bike set-up problems left Tunstall 29th on the grid after the qualifying session.
Fortunately, the torrential rain in Sunday’s forecast didn’t materialise and the damp track was once again drying fast as the Superstock 1000s were called. The team were not able to prepare the bike in time and Tunstall was forced to start from the back of the full grid.
With dry tyres and a half wet suspension setting, he cut through six places on the opening lap and another four on the following lap.
After a two-lap period behind the safety car he once again got to work making ground.
“But after attempting to pass into the Old Hairpin he lost traction and collided with another rider losing over 30 seconds in the trip across the gravel to re-join the race.
After making his way back up to 25th an understandably disappointed Tunstall said: “Unfortunately this whole weekend has been a comedy of errors.
“It’s taken a lot of effort and expense to get things prepared but I’m afraid to say basic preparation errors have compromised our performance.
“While mistakes can happen it’s the multitude of issues that have been disappointing as they have not allowed me to make best of this penultimate opportunity of 2019.”
The final round of the 2019 British Superbike series takes place at Brands Hatch GP circuit on October 18-20.