O’Shea leads the charge with a comeback through to fight for the podium on race day
After a more difficult Saturday, the Junior Talent Team moved forward on Sunday, with Eddie O’Shea leading the charge in British Talent Team colours. The Brit was the top scorer for the team across the two close-fought races at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as the JTT leaves Round 2 at Valencia with a best of sixth.
In a tougher Race 1, O’Shea was in the huge group fight for seventh but ultimately forced to settle for P11. However, that proved a perfect springboard for a move up through the order in Race 2. The Brit was in the heat of what became the battle for the third step on the podium, losing out on a rostrum by just two tenths but crossing the line in sixth for a good chunk of points as he continues to get back up to full power.
In Race 1, Tatchakorn Buasri was likewise in the heat of the battle for points, with the Thai rider taking some too – coming home in P13. After the lights went out for the second time though, bad luck hit early in Race 2 as the Honda Racing Thailand rider was caught up in a four-rider incident at Turn 4, losing his chance to move forward.
Arbi Aditama, meanwhile, leaves Valencia without scoring but after some promising flashes of pace, not least of all in Race 2 as the Indonesian was on an absolute charge, up into sixth before unfortunately sliding out. In Race 1, the Astra Honda rider was just thousandths away from points too – losing out in the duel for P15 by just 0.015.
Finally, it was a positive weekend for Shinya Ezawa as he continued to fill in for the injured Danial Shahril in Asia Talent Team colours. He was P17 of 25 finishers in the first race of the day, no mean feat in only his second outing with the team this season, and in the second race he took an impressive P11 with a huge leap up the order – not only homing in on the top ten but also cutting his gap to the win by a whopping 14 seconds. Chapeau!
That’s a wrap on Round 2 in Valencia, but we’re back in action in just two weeks’ time as the classic Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto awaits – with two more JuniorGP™ races on the agenda. Make sure to come back and join us for more in Andalucia!
