2010
In 2010 Aaron will ride an Aprilia 125 in the Superteens Challenge. He will also be entered in the Nitro Newcomers championship that runs as part of the main championship. This is run by Thundersport GB, and coverage is shown throughout the season on Motors TV.
Aaron will ride under the number 11 for 2010, as 111 is unavailable.
Mallory Park, Round 1, March 2010.
The first race each day is where every rider races together. The riders are then split into two races: qualifiers up to half way for one race, then the last half of the qualifiers in the next race. The results below show Aaron's races, there were two more races which are not shown as Aaron was not in them for the above reason.
Where 'Nitro Newcomers' is shown, this is the novice championship that Aaron races in, however 'overall' refers to the fact that Nitro Newcomers ride with non-novice riders.
Friday
Test day saw rain and drizzle all day, however Aarons lap times were good.
Saturday
Qualifying: Bad luck from the onset, during the first lap, Aaron’s bike broke down, leaving him 16th on the grid (Nitro Newcomers) and 35th on the grid overall out of a total class of 36.
Race 1: Aaron worked his way through to 7th place (Nitro Newcomers) and 24th overall out of 36 riders.
Race 2 (Split race): Aaron started 12th on the grid out of 16, due to the split race, and was running in 2nd place (Nitro Newcomers) and 3rd overall until lap 8 where at Edwina’s Aaron crashed out, resulting in a DNF.
Sunday
Race 1: Again Aaron worked his way through to 6th place (Nitro Newcomers) and 20th overall.
Race 2 (Split race): Aaron gained a 4th place (Nitro Newcomers) and 6th place overall.
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Mallory Park , March 2010, Round 1
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Pembrey, Round 2, April 2010.
Where 'Nitro Newcomers' is shown, this is the novice championship that Aaron races in, however 'overall' refers to the fact that Nitro Newcomers ride with non-novice riders.
Friday
Test day was a difficult day due to technical set up of the bike; lots of different things were tried, and finally improved after Race 1 on Saturday.
Saturday
Qualifying: The bike still had handling issues which resulted in a qualifying position of 10th (Nitro Newcomers) and 28th place on the grid overall out of a total class of 40 .
Race 1: After still not being able to resolve the handling issues, Aaron’s results were 9th (Nitro Newcomers) and 27th overall, out of a total of 37 finishing riders. This was a decent result considering that Aaron had to constantly fight the bike during the race.
Race 2: The handling issues seemed to have been resolved, having found numerous problems, significantly a buckled front wheel, and it was obvious that Aaron’s riding style had changed, he was clearly more relaxed and running well when the race was red flagged. It was then restarted, but about 4 laps in at Honda curve another rider struck Aaron’s bike, sending him crashing out. This resulted in a hospital visit for x-rays. Aaron is now using crutches for severe swelling and bruising to his knee and elbow. Luckily, there were no broken bones but Aaron was unable to ride on Sunday due to his injuries. This did not make him happy. The bike has a fair amount of damage which will take some time and effort to correct, with another front buckled wheel amongst the other issues.
 | Pembrey |
Snetterton, Round 3, May 2010.
The weather for the whole weekend was alternating between rain and strong winds and sunshine.
Aaron’s previous experience at Round 2, Pembrey, (where he was hit by another rider which resulted in him on a backboard, with a neck brace and having his leathers cut off in the back of an ambulance) left him with a profound psychological effect. Having not had the chance to ride since the incident, Aaron spent this weekend getting to know his bike again, and working on focussing his mind set. As the weekend progressed, Aaron became more relaxed and improved his results.
Saturday
Test day was a learning curve, with repairs made to the bike, Aaron then had to use the half day testing to iron out any occurring problems. Most significantly were front brake problems into the afternoon qualifying. The two qualifying sessions resulted in Aaron in 13th out of 17 riders (Nitro Newcomers) and 35th on the grid out of a total 40.
Sunday
Race 1: Aaron was now riding with a new front brake disc due to the binding issue. He was looking more relaxed and working well when on the last lap, the bike broke down which resulted in a DNF.
Race 2: With the fuel problem resolved and the weather reasonably good, Aaron gained a 5th out of 7 Nitro Newcomer riders, 20th out of 24 total riders.
Monday
Race 1: With a downpour half an hour before the race, Aaron rode using wet tyres. Now his positioning had improved with a result of 9th out of 13 (Nitro Newcomers) and 21st out of a total 30 riders.
Race 2: With yet another downpour half an hour before the race, there was a difficult choice for tyres. After much debate and watching the sky, with 20 minutes to go, the only option was wets. 4 minutes before the race the sun came out, shone brilliantly, the wind dried the track – and no time left to change back to dry’s!
Still, the result was decent – 10th out of 17 (Nitro Newcomers) and 26th out of a total 38 riders.
Aaron is now lying in 14th position in the championship, due to 5 DNF's resulting from the bad luck of 3 mechanical failures and 2 crash incidents.
The objective for Round 4 is to get the engines up to a competitive standard.
Cadwell Park, Round 4, May 2010.
The weather for the whole weekend was alternating between rain, thunder, rain and sunshine.
Saturday
The half day testing day on Saturday morning gave the riders 4 practice sessions, leaving little time to learn the track for riders like Aaron that had never ridden there before. Cadwell Park is a narrow, technical track which includes the infamous ‘Mountain’.
As usual, test day was a learning curve, with a new engine, and repairs and settings made to the bike. The rain came in mid morning and continued for the rest of the day.
The two qualifying sessions resulted in Aaron in 15th out of 17 riders (Nitro Newcomers) and 34th on the grid out of a total 38. He also improved his lap time by 9 seconds.
Sunday
Race 1: Hail stones and heavy rain made Race 1 difficult, however Aaron finished in a respectable 8th out of 15 riders (Nitro Newcomers), 20th out of a total grid of 35. A significant result as he qualified 34th on the grid. Aaron reported that his bike had intermittent power during the race.
Race 2: Hoping that the power fault had been rectified and on a wet track, but not raining, Aaron gained a 12th out of 16 riders (Nitro newcomers), 27th out of 38 total riders. Again a respectable result, with the bike continuing to gain and lose power erratically during the race but lap times had now gone back up by 12 seconds due to the technical fault.
Monday
Race 1: With a dry track and some sunshine, the bike was still suffering, but Aaron managed to bring his lap time down yet again by 16 seconds from is original lap time, it wasn’t enough however and his finishing position was 13th out of 16 riders (Nitro Newcomers), and 31st out of a total 38 riders.
Race 2: By this time frustration was setting in over the power issue, but the warm up lap looked good. However on the start line, Aaron got his usual good start, then got overtaken by most of the riders behind him. This was due to the bike losing all electrics, all the clocks went off and the bike lost all power, so Aaron had no choice but to retire. The weekend’s technical problems turned out to be a 15 amp fuse which had been breaking down all weekend, causing the erratic power then finally losing complete power.
A decent set of results for Aaron considering bad luck on the technical side again.
Oulton Park, Round 5, June 2010
The weather for the whole weekend was swelteringly hot!
This meeting was a 1 day event; therefore Friday had a half day testing with qualifying in the afternoon.
Friday
Morning testing was uneventful, with Aaron trying to learn a track that he had never ridden in very little time.
Aaron qualified 27th out of a total 33 riders, (10th out of 12 Nitro Newcomers)
Saturday
Race 1: A decent result – 23rd out of a total 33 riders, (8th out of 12 Nitro Newcomers).
Aarons lap time stayed the same as qualifying.
Race 2: 24th out of a total 31 riders, (8th out of 12 Nitro Newcomers). Again the lap time stayed the same.
Cadwell Park, Round 6, August 2010
The weather for the whole weekend was humid, cloudy with spots of rain occasionally.
Friday
Cadwell Park is a narrow, technical track which includes the infamous ‘Mountain’. Friday testing was a whole day event giving Aaron the chance to try different set up’s. Although he had ridden there before in Round 4, the bike at that time had been running at 12bhp, so Aaron had to look at this round as starting again.
Saturday
During qualifying, Aaron managed to take 4 seconds off his lap time from Friday practice, and 19 seconds of his lap time when he was previously at Cadwell with 12bhp. His overall qualifying position was not the best, 27th out of a total 34 riders (12th out of 16 Nitro Newcomers).
Race 1: Aaron had not the best start; however he managed to get himself into 24th position, with a big gap in front of him and behind him. Aaron claimed that position at the finish line. 24th out of a total 34 (10th out of 16 Nitro Newcomers). The race was red flagged on lap 7, and ended with lap 6 positions.
As Aaron had reported since the start of the season that the bike never felt trustable and felt at times like it would crash in the best conditions, an investigation started between Race 1 and 2! This resulted in the front forks adjusted making the front end softer. (When is the mechanic going to give the child what he wants!)
Race 2: Aaron got a good start, into 22nd place during the first lap and found that he had someone to fight with for the entire race. There was a lot of place swapping between the two, with Aaron winning the fight over the line to take 22nd out of 33 total riders (10th out of 16 Nitro Newcomers). Aaron improved his lap time by a further 2 seconds.
Aarons bike was then taken for a random Dyno test, the results of which are not given to the rider.
Sunday
Race 1: Aaron, as usual got a good start, but again had no one to fight with; however he gained his best position of the weekend with a 21st out of 33 total riders (8th out of 16 Nitro Newcomers).
Race 2: A great start again from Aaron, and he found himself again having a fight with the rider from Saturday’s race 2. With lots of place swapping, Aaron found himself behind on the last corner but took his place back just before the finish line. This gave him a 22nd out of total 32 riders (10th out of 16 Nitro Newcomers). Aaron improved his lap time by a further second.
A decent set of results for Aaron, now the technical issues have been resolved, he needs to focus on qualifying.
