A Weekend on a Borrowed KTM
Round 6 took us to Cadwell Park. Evan had only done three laps there before, so there was still plenty of learning to do.
Thursday was a track day on the R6 and gave Evan a chance to learn the circuit and gradually bring his lap times down. He completed five sessions before we decided to sit out the last one. The final session of a track day can sometimes see people pushing a little harder, and we didn’t think there was anything to gain by taking the extra risk.
It had rained overnight going into Friday, so we also decided to miss the first test session and give the track a chance to dry. Evan went out in session two, but towards the end of the session he ran wide at Chris Curve, the bend after Park, and ended up on the grass.
Unfortunately the R6 was damaged in the crash and the radiator was leaking. We spent most of the evening trying to stop the leak and get the bike ready for Saturday, but eventually we ran out of time.
This is where Tom and Sammi from Ride Culture Racing stepped in.
Evan had ridden their KTM 990RCR at the Anglesey 12 Hour Endurance a couple of weeks earlier, where they finished third in class. Following Anglesey they’d asked Evan to join them for the remaining endurance rounds.
Tom and Sammi offered us the KTM again so Evan could continue the weekend. Tom and Evan set off just after 9:15pm on the four-hour round trip to collect it, eventually getting back to Cadwell at around 2:15am.
Saturday morning we were back out on the KTM. Evan already knew the bike from Anglesey and it felt good straight away. He felt he was already going quicker than he had on the R6, although Thursday and Friday weren’t officially timed so we had nothing to directly compare it with.
Qualifying was interrupted by a red flag and Evan came in after two laps, putting him 22nd on the grid. In Saturday’s race he finished 22nd overall and 13th in class.
Sunday’s first race was shortened to five laps following another red flag, with Evan finishing 19th overall and 13th in class.
The final race was where everything started to come together. Evan finished 13th overall and 10th in class, setting his quickest lap of the weekend at 1:40.740.
Considering where we were on Friday evening, we were more than happy to finish the weekend with a top ten in class and Evan’s quickest lap of the meeting.
A massive thank you to Tom and Sammi for helping us out and lending Evan the KTM at such short notice, and to everyone at Ride Culture Racing. Thanks as always to all our partners for their continued support.