Assen delivered a whole lot of action this weekend, in Tom Edwards and the Yamaha Austrian Racing Team (YART) debut World SuperSport 600 Challenge season opener.
Showing promising potential for the season ahead, Edwards and YART finished the weekend taking home their first point.
Qualifying wasn't quite what they'd hoped for. Edwards pitted to make a few adjustments to the bike but ultimately fell short on time in his second stint, unable to make up his ideal lap time, securing P23 on the grid.
Edwards got a strong jump off the line in Race 1 and was quick to make up the positions. He managed to slot up into P17 and was pushing to score his first World SuperSport 600 points for the season.
It all came to a devastating finish for Edwards, with only 4 laps to go when Nicholas Spinelli struck him from behind, which ended the race for both riders.
Race 2, Tom was ready to show he means business this year. It was an ordinary start, but after the first lap, he started picking them off one by one.
It was a nail-biting battle to the finish between Edwards and Federico Fuligni, both pushing to slot into the top 15 and take home a point.
Fuligni made a critical error in the last sector when he ran wide opening up the doors for Edwards and the YART team to cross the finish line in 15th.
Edwards said "I'm happy with how we finished the weekend. Our goal as a team was to get points, and we did that."
"It was unfortunate to be taken out in race 1, but I gave it my all in race 2. We just need to do better in qualifying, and I think we'll have a really strong season together."
Next Race: Catalunya 5 - 7 May