Points haul for Tom Neave at Snetterton

Points haul for Tom Neave at Snetterton

 In Race Report

Tom Neave enjoyed a strong outing at the eighth round of the 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Snetterton where he scored points in all three races aboard his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP machine, across what was a much more somber and subdued weekend.

The weekend didn’t start as planned for the BSB rookie, with wet weather conditions on Friday morning as the first free practice got underway, which saw Tom tip off early into the session, but with a dry track in the afternoon he finished 18th.

The mixed weather conditions followed the teams’ into Saturday, where the final free practice was wet, but saw Tom finish 14th. Qualifying started with a dry track and out on slick tyres Tom did his best to set a quick time. However, the rain made its return and with the track becoming greasy Tom crashed out and was forced to start the afternoon’s opening race from the back row in 27th.

With a strong field ahead of him for the eBay Sprint Race, Tom knew he had some work to do in order to make his way through the pack, but across the 12-lap race he got his head down and rode a calculated race, eventually making up 13 places to finish in the points in 14th place.

Having built back some confidence in Saturday’s race, Tom was looking forward to Sunday’s two longer 16-lap races. Race 2 he took another 14th place, but in the final race of the weekend, having made good progress with the Fireblade, Tom came home 13th, just 0.02s from 12th place.

The next round of the 2022 season takes place in two weeks’ time on 23-24-25 September, with the British Superbike Championship returning to Cheshire’s Oulton Park.

 

“The weekend started horribly, I had a tip off in a wet and greasy FP1, followed by another crash in Q1. We did manage to turn the weekend around and thankfully ended on a much more positive note. Starting on the back row of the grid for Race 1 wasn’t ideal, but I finished 14th, which saw another 14th follow for Race 2. The final race we made a good step forward with the bike and had a much more solid race, coming home in 13th and just 0.02s from 12th. After a difficult few rounds it’s nice to get three point scoring finishes from a weekend, build some confidence and take a step forward again. Sorry to my team for the extra work with the crashes and thank you for all their hard work across the weekend.”