HUDDERSFIELD racer James Lodge is hoping he’s used up all his bad luck for the year after his bid to make a big impact at Silverstone were ruined by gremlins.
The British Superbike 125cc champion had hoped to impress at the Northamptonshire track having been handed a wildcard invite for the MotoGP 125cc event, but technical problems left the 20-year-old very frustrated.
Now, he’s hoping for much better luck at Mallory Park this weekend.
Crashes in testing at Silverstone and in his previous championship outing at Cadwell Park, which left him with hand and ankle injuries, had hampered his build up – but mechanical failures proved his undoing.
“I did well enough in first practice, but I knew I wasn’t riding as well as I should have – I was perhaps lacking confidence as I hadn’t ridden for a month,” said Lodge.
“Unfortunately in qualifying we had a problem with the bike and we were down on speed and power.
“We couldn’t fix it during the session so we had to go with it. I qualified but ended up 31st due to the problem.
“The morning warm up was slightly more encouraging. I was 23rd fastest and set my fastest time of the weekend, so I was slightly more positive for the race.”
However, what had been irritating troubles in qualifying became major headaches when it came to race time.
“Unfortunately there were problems from the start,” said Lodge.
“The bike first cut out on the sighting lap and then it just died on me when the lights went out.
“The race was over from the start, but I had a battle for seven laps until the bike died for good.
“Hopefully this will be all my bad luck for the year out of the way.”
