The second round of the Hel Motostar British Championship took place at Brands Hatch at the weekend, and for Team ILR's young riders Vasco van der Valk and Joe Thomas it was a tough weekend with both however scoring more championship points.  

First qualifying saw Joe and Vasco experience contrasting fortunes.

Vasco finished the session happy in 7th place, however Joe crashed on his last lap, thankfully without injury to himself or damage to his bike, but still managed to finish 12th quickest with both riders just over one second off the pace.

The second session was again held in dry sunny conditions but unfortunately both van der Valk and Thomas couldn't quite better their times from the first session and, with most of their rivals raising their game in the session, both finished up alongside each other on the fifth row of the grid, 14th and 15th respectively for Race 1 later in the afternoon.

This was obviously not where Joe and Vasco had hoped to be, and it left them both with a tough task on the short Indy circuit.

And indeed that's how it transpired with the two team-mates mixed up in heavy traffic in the early stages of the 15 lap race, before exchanging places with each other and a few other riders to eventually finish in the same positions from which they started, albeit with the roles being reversed.  

With Joe and Vasco again occupying similar positions on the grid for race two, both knew they again had it all to do and team boss Ian Lougher decided on a few minor changes to the bikes from the first race.

For the first seven laps of the reduced to 18 laps race, the two team-mates were virtually inseparable, running in 13th and 14th and battling with Jake Archer with a bit of daylight back to the pursuing bunch of riders.

At three quarters race distance the positions were the same but the group behind were closing and with a lap to go Joe in 12th had a few seconds to spare over Vasco who was now in a real scrap for 13th with Josh Owens, who had just posted the fastest 125cc lap of the race, and Asher Durham.

At the flag it was Thomas in 12th, just fractions behind 11th placed man  Elliot Lodge, with van der Valk claiming 15th.

So a couple of tough races for both lads but they still managed to salvage points with Thomas also strong through all three sectors in the second race.

Both however lost ground in the championship and will be looking to bounce back at the next round at Oulton Park in two weeks time. 

Team ILR owner Ian Lougher :

'' A couple of hard races for the boys for a few points. After fitting a new Maxton shock to Joe's bike he lapped at a very impressive 50.5 secs to finish 12th. He actually lapped as quick as the 4th place rider. So in the future the plan is to qualify better and get away with the fast lads. Vasco had a solid ride to 15th again but lapped quicker today at 51.1 secs so he's satisfied enough. But again with a few things to sort out in qualifying he had to ride hard to gain the points he did. I'm very satisfied with both riders, and we as a team are looking forward to working with both lads when we get to Oulton.''

Joe Thomas :

"I'm happy with the weekend. We have progressed on the bike so bring on Oulton. As always big thanks to the team and my sponsors." 

Vasco van der Valk :  

"That was a great weekend ! I learned new things every outing and had a lot of help from Matt and Ian setting up the bike, they are really great. My results were OK, I had two good races and I feel we can still improve a lot ! Can’t wait for Oulton Park, I did race there once before and had good results that time, so I’m confident we can have another great weekend. Thanks to my team and sponsors for all the support."