Race Report - FIM MiniGP World Finals

After the devasting floods in Valencia the World Finals was moved from Circuit Ricardo Tormo to Motorland Aragon. This was a completely new track for me but has also been somewhere I've wanted to race so was excited to get there.

Day 1

This was for Administration and assignment of groups. I was in Group A which meant I’d be the first group out. We also had the fitting of our leathers and helmet. Being alphabetical and UK we were 2nd last for this ahead of USA.

Day 2

We got the delivery of the bike and most of the day was a Media Day. We also got a track walk and familiarisation along with various briefings for myself as rider and my dad as the mechanic.

Day 3

Free Practice 1 - decision was made to use this session to scrub in wet tyres ahead of the rain that was forecast. Session was reduced to 5mins so only got a couple of laps in. This was first ever session at the track so used the opportunity to focus on my lines.

Free Practice 2 - this session was increased from 15mins to 20mins

Free Practice 3 - this was another 15min session

Struggled a bit with the bike set up all throughout free practice. Couldn’t get the suspension comfortable.

Day 4

After yesterday, I was sitting 15th out of 41. To make it straight to Q3 I needed to be top 12. As the weather was rubbish, I knew I couldn’t improve on this going into FP4 which was a shame as we’d made some adjustments to the bike set up. However I used the session to get a feel for the bike and track in the wet conditions.

With my combined times from free practice, I went straight into Q2 on a very wet track. I got a good couple of laps in and was sitting P1 but the bike cut out so I had to come into pits. Once we got going again, I continued to the lead the session by over 1 second. Unfortunately I then had a massive high side which meant I had to sit out most of the session and take a trip to the medical centre after a bump to the head. That was Q2 done for me. Thankfully I was given the all clear by the medical team and everyone mucked in to get the bike sorted. New helmet also required. Thanks to everyone for getting me back out and ready so quickly as Q3 was back to back with Q2 and I needed to be out there.

Even with my incident, I still finished P1 in Q2 which promoted me to Q3 meaning I wouldn’t have to do the qualifying races later in the day.

When I competed at the world finals back in 2022 at 10 years old I also managed to progress through to the final day without doing the qualifying races so was a great feeling to be in that position again.

Q3 was the session that determined your grid position for the final races the next day.

After heading out, I put a decent time in but unfortunately had another big crash after trying for a fast lap. Thankfully I was ok enough to rejoin. I managed to sit most of the session in P3 but didn’t want to push on due to the risk. I ended up finishing in P4 which is amazing and put me in P4 for the finals.

Day 5

Finally it was Race day and I was super excited.

All races were declared wet as the track was still damp. Race 1 started P4, got an ok start, managed to do well throughout and finished 6th and get points on the board. Race 2, again started P4. Not a great start but was another decent race but I dropped to 10th by the end. Just didn’t feel enough power out of the bike and struggled with grip. I was also feeling a bit off the pace after my crashes the day before and lacked a bit of confidence by this point.

For the final race I was sitting 9th overall and with double points up for grabs I was determined to improve on that but with a mechanical issue on the warm up lap and unable to get bike restarted that was unfortunately the end of the World Finals for me.

The week was full of ups and downs but overall I finished 12th out of 41 of the fastest kids from around the world so definitely proud of what I’ve achieved.

Well done to all the riders and especially my UK team mates who made the trip even more enjoyable. Everyone did amazingly against the best riders out there for their age group. Some great talent out there. Just getting to the finals is a fantastic achievement for everyone.

A special thanks to Danny Webb and Harry Meanwell for the support throughout the week.

Also to Ryan at Grassroots to GrandPrix for the social media coverage throughout.

Thanks to everyone for all the messages, it’s really appreciated.

Thank you to everyone that supports me and a special thanks to all of my sponsors:

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