British Talent Cup: Bourne and O’Gorman Victorious at Snetterton

The British Talent Cup riders returned to the tarmac at Snetterton last weekend for Round 2 of the 2020 campaign.

Franco Bourne secured a comfortable win in Race 1 to extend his championship lead while Casey O’Gorman prevailed in a three-rider photo finish in Race 2.

Despite a DNF in the second race, Bourne leaves Snetterton heading the class standings with a total points haul of 70. Eddie O’Shea sits second, eight points adrift of top spot, with Harvey Claridge a further five points behind in third.

Race 1

Franco Bourne (Franco Bourne Racing/SP125 Racing) beat polesitter Eddie O’Shea (WAM) at the start and led the field over the line for the first time, just 0.019 seconds ahead of Charlie Farrer (Victoria House Racing Academy/Mortimer) with Casey O’Gorman (Microlise Creswell Racing) in close contention in third.

Bourne looked in fine form and stretched out a half a second advantage in the early stages of the race. Watching his rival check out, O’Gorman reacted immediately and took Farrer for second prior to closing down the gap and hitting the front on Lap 4.

Paint was being swapped in a leading group of six as Harvey Claridge (City Lifting/SP125 Racing) and Jamie Lyons (Jamie Lyons Racing) had joined the front runners and positions kept changing as the riders battled it out.

Halfway into the 14-lap race, Bourne and Farrer were exchanging punches for the lead, closely followed by Claridge, O’Shea and O’Gorman while Lyons gradually lost touch to the top. O’Gorman’s race, however, found a premature end on Lap 8. The #72 dropped off the pace and retired to the pits due to a mechanical issue.

The five remaining front runners meanwhile were back close together. The lead changed hands multiple times over the course of just two laps and all of the riders looked in contention for victory. The race was over for Lyons on Lap 10 though as he lost the front at Agostini and ended the down down on the grass.

An attacking and determined looking Bourne executed a move on O’Shea through Bomb Hole and Coram on Lap 10 and crossed the line first going into Lap 11. From there the #17 had his head down and started to gradually stretch away at the front.

Bourne did not look back and took the chequered flag with an eventually comfortable lead of almost two seconds for his second win of the season. Behind him though, the remaining podium positions were far from decided and the battle between Claridge, Farrer and O’Shea raged on until the final lap.

Farrer and O’Shea both sweeped past Claridge on Senna Straight going into Lap 14. Farrer briefly looked to make a getaway in second, but O’Shea got great acceleration out of Murrays and reeled him in on Senna Straight to cross the line in runner-up spot.

Elliott Dufton (D&D Racing) finished just under 37 seconds behind the leader in fifth, comfortably ahead of Corey Tinker (Stauff Fluid Power Academy). Harrison Crosby (Banks Racing) just held off Ollie Walker (Moto Rapido/SP125 Racing) for seventh from Bailey Stuart-Campbell (151s S-C Racing) and Ryan Hitchcock (Wilson Racing) who rounded out the top 10.

Race 2

O’Shea stole the holeshot from polesitter Bourne but was swiftly beaten to the lead by Claridge in a manoeuvre that also allowed Bourne to move into second.

Despite exchanging punches and handing the lead around between them, Claridge, Bourne and O’Shea started to check out at the front. Their advantage did not last though as O’Gorman and Farrer, keen to get back into the front fight, were hunting them down and caught up at the halfway stage of the race to form a leading group of five.

O’Shea was leading over the line from O’Gorman, Claridge, Farrer and Bourne, but the positions were swapping and changing and the race was impossible to call. The riders did not give each other an inch and numerous hard but clean manoeuvres kept changing the order.

The leading group went into the penultimate lap with all five riders still well in contention for the win. O’Gorman pulled out the slipstream down Senna Straight and hit the front going into Riches, an example followed by O’Shea who moved up into second. Claridge was demoted from the lead and subsequently fell victim to Bourne at Montreal. The #16 would not settle though and took a wide, sweeping line through Brundle to stick it straight up the inside of Bourne at Nelson and regain the position.

O’Gorman left the door open for O’Shea at Bomb Hole and the WAM rider dived past his rival’s inside to take the lead off him. O’Shea, O’Gorman and Claridge went over the line for the final lap three abreast and it was anyone’s to win.

Claridge was first into Riches, but O’Shea executed a great late move down the inside to overtake at Corams, just as disaster struck behind them. Championship leader Bourne lost the front at corner exit and went down, bringing out the red flag as he slit back onto the track and was stranded at Murrays.

Although the leading quartet crossed the line, the red flag was already out and the results would be counted back to the end of Lap 13. This meant that O’Gorman took victory in a photo finish, by the tiniest of margins of 0.002 seconds from O’Shea and Claridge – none of the riders themselves even knew who won until they got to parc fermé.

Farrer ended the race in fourth, just a few tenths behind, while Dufton finished almost 30 seconds adrift of the leaders. Evan Belford (City Lifting by RS Racing) was sixth just ahead of Crosby and Tinker while Hitchcock and Walker rounded out the top 10.