LEARNING CURVE

Teen Hart is made of the tough stuff

M o t o rc yc l i s t Jack Hart continued his development with another impressive performance on the national circuit.

The Bank Holiday weekend saw the British Talent Cup return to Donington Park for round two where it was running alongside the World Superbike Series.

The first round of the BTC had been cut short due to horrendous weather conditions, with the second race being cancelled due to a flooded track.

The weather hadn’t improved much for round two and teenager Hart, 13, from Renfrew, had to contend with another very wet circuit.

The bike was all set but the conditions were far from ideal for the start of the race.

Hart didn’t get off to the greatest start and dropped back off the line.He then braked really late into the opening corner and managed to make up a couple of positions.

Hart managed to overtake Ross Turner for twelfth position but Turner fought back and got Hart into the final corner of the lap.

They then spent the next couple of laps overtaking each other but this allowed the group in front to increase their lead.

Hart battled away with Turner for the rest of the race, with Turner just piping Jack for eleventh position.

Preparation on the Sunday was similar to Saturday but Hart also spent some time with his coach Dani Ribalta to try and see where he could improve. Ribalta was able to suggest some changes to Hart’s technique and lines and made some more suspension changes to the bike.

Hart was feeling confident for the race and was determined to get off to a good start and push hard on the first lap.

He did this perfectly and had moved into twelfth place by the first corner.

Scott Ogden and Fenton Seabright then clashed, forcing Hart to go around the outside of the corner. But the Scot kept it full gas even with Ogden’s broken exhaust leaning on his leg.

By the end of the first lap Hart was sitting in tenth and was at the back of a group of riders battling for fourth.

Over the next 12 laps Hart worked his way through each of them, feeling confident with the bike and believing he could get into fourth position.

With two laps to go, Hart found himself in fifth place and was right behind Josh Whatley.

When lining up to overtake Whatley, the Renfrew rider ran too wide which allowed both Cameron Horseman and Storm Stacy to come through.

This upset Hart’s momentum that he had built up and when he tried to overtake Horseman on the last corner, he again ran wide which allowed Brian Hart to capitalise.

These costly errors saw Hart finish in ninth position.

The riders Hart was up against are generally older and have much more experience to call upon but that didn’t deter the exciting prospect.

The next round of the British Talent Cup is run alongside the British Superbike Championship at Snetterton over the weekend of June 15-17.