Fast Bikes - August 2018 - Issue 343

Page 119

COLUMNIST

THE TIM AND TOM SHOW NEAVE TWIN RACING

Neave twins I

’m writing this on my way home from K nockhill, where we have just had an absolutely incredible weekend. If you’d have told me I could’ve finished on the podium in my third race in the British Superstock C hampionship, I’m not sure I would have believed you, but we have only gone and done it, with a second place finish. I can’t describe how it feels to surpass everyone’s expectations (including my own), but it’s the best feeling in the world. Our little team is like a family so when there is something to celebrate, it’s so good to celebrate it with them. The first race, which I finished seventh in, was actually the harder race; I was in a bit of clear track and I really had to concentrate on pushing to keep my pace up and I ended up getting arm pump and a bit of fatigue in my still slightly weak shoulder. In race two, everything just clicked into place nicely, and when you’re up at the front, having a really good race, there is no time to worry about arm pump and stuff like that. One thing that has really helped is racing legend Roger Marshall coming on board to help me out as a bit of a mentor. What he doesn’t know about bike racing isn’t worth knowing and I feel like I can learn so much from him. We have even got his son Adam helping out on the spanners too. Tim had a bit of bad luck at K nockhill in the Supersport class, with his mechanic not being able to come due to injury and then having to start from the back of the grid, due to not getting out of pit lane on time (I’d buy him a watch but I don’t think he can tell the time). I think it was a bit of a tough weekend for him; when you’re racing at this level you need stuff to be right and he didn’t have the people round him that he wanted. Saying that he still pulled it out the bag and got a top ten in the feature race finishing eighth, but I’ll let Tim tell you more about that next month.

Tom showed the stock lads his mettle...

And brother Tim bagged another top 10 in Supersport.

Away from the racing, we have both been working hard on the farm. We are about to start harvesting and with all this nice weather it looks as though everything is going to come at once. It couldn’t have come at a worse time really because we have got loads of stuff on. Tim and I are racing in the Moto Time Attack at C adwell P ark next weekend and its Brands H atch BSB the weekend after that so we are going to have to have our work cut out if we are going to get everything harvested in time. H opefully there will still be time to go out training on the mountain bike with my uncle Tim and the odd Thursday night mini-biking session with Rich C ooper and K yle Ryde because they are always a good laugh, and having the thing sliding about and drifting really helps keep your throttle control sharp (well that’s my excuse for going anyway). Whatever we are doing though, my focus is going to be on the next round and making sure I can carry all the positives from K nockhill through to Brands H atch. I can’t bloody wait.

Knockers at Knockhill...

AUGUST 2018 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 119


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