Edwards reclaims the Challenge lead with season best weekend in Magny-Cours
The weather was anything but ideal for racing this weekend in Magny-Cours, France, but the Aussie #71 Tom Edwards proved his skill in the tough conditions to come out with a season best weekend, with P7 and P14.
On Friday, Edwards and the D34G team knew they had work to do to get Edwards comfortable on the bike again after a string of unlucky weekends. They finished P15 in free practice but weren’t able to find any time during the Superpole session, ending up with a P18 spot on the starting grid.
The riders took to the grid on Saturday for race one before a huge downpour on the sighting lap red flagged the season ultimately ending the day and pushing the race back to Sunday morning.
The Sunday double header was full of action, with Edwards catapulting off the line from P18 but getting caught in a scruff at turn 5 pushed him back down the field. Track conditions still proved to be a challenge but Edwards kept a level head and ran his own race, claiming an impressive P7 finish for the D34G Racing team as well as a top 9 fastest lap time, which took from P18 to P9 for race 2 starting position.
A few short hours later, riders were back on track for race 2 with yet again completely different track conditions. Edwards managed to get up to P9 during the race, but a front end issue with his Ducati Panigale V2 made it a challenge to keep to his usual pace. Edwards decided to play it strategically and finish comfortably with points, crossing the line in P14.
Edwards was top World SuperSport Challenge finisher in both races and now sits 6-points in the lead of the World SuperSport Challenge and 16th in the overall standings.
Quote Tom:
Overall, I’m really happy with how this round went. I'm back to feeling comfortable and trusting my bike, which has been an issue the last couple of rounds.
This weekend was a big step in the right direction for both me and the team. P7 is big step from where we've been, we keep showing our potential and our speed, now it's just a matter of keeping it consistent.
Happy to finish both races as WorldSSP Challenge winner secure some valuable points in the standings. We're now 6-points ahead in the Challenge and we'll keep building in Cremona in a couple of weeks time. I’d like to thank the team their efforts in getting the bike to a good position. I'm feeling very confident for the rest of the season, with only four rounds lets, it's time to put our heads down and really prove what we're capable of together."
