Name Chris Pickersgill
Age 46
Occupation Dyson Service Engineer
Experience:-
I have approx 31 years riding experience on and off road, starting with a Gilera trial bike when I was 15 years old and have ridden all kinds of bikes over the years, including a year as a dispatch rider and many track days, starting with the Performance Bike Frenzy in 1995.
I began road racing in 2004 on a standard Kawasaki KR1S 250 and later a Suzuki RGV250 competing in the KR Cup run by Derby Phoenix within their F400 class. I only competed in a few selected rounds with limited success, the best results being a couple of 3rd places at Croft. An uncompetitive machine, lack of funds and ultimately a crash (which wrote off the bike) lead to a re-think and the decision to race in the CB500 Cup. I entered one round at Donnington in 2005 finishing 9th in both races, then did nearly the whole season in 2006 (9 out of 11 rounds) finishing 7th in the Championship and top novice.
In 2007 I entered most of the rounds (9 out of 11 again) and finished the season in 5th place, along the way taking my first Superclub win at Mallory park.
2008, saw an up and down season with 3 superclub race wins and 1 club win, plus many podiums but technical problems with the bike, a couple of crashes (and subsequent shoulder Injury) plus a lack of funds meant I only competed in 8 out of 12 rounds and finished the year in 8th position in the championship.
2009, The Class changed from New Era to ThundersportGB and was re-named Thundersport 500 I was one of the riders instrumental in the move to thundersport and am now a riders rep for the class. Thundersport GB are now the premier club in the UK with TV coverage on Motors TV, Eurosport and possibly ITV4 this year.
A first for me I competed in a full Championship for the first time, finishing the year in 3rd overall and 2nd in the seniors championship. This unfortunately came at a cost as without a major sponsor I ended the year with a large credit card bill which I have had to sell one of my race bikes to clear.
2010, With only one bike and limited funds I only attended three meetings but despite my lack of track time I still managed a couple of front row starts and two podium finishes but missing the rest of the season meant I finished 16th in the overall championship and 9th in the Seniors.
2011, Another tough year financially with no sponsorship, other than practical help from Chris at Old Chapel Garage and help with some component's from Carl at Race Supplies Direct, so only selected round's entered again.
I was happy with my performance at Donnington, battling at the front and just missing out on podiums, despite being a little rusty having had very little track time, against some very fast and determined rider's but decided a change was in order and by Cadwell had already made the decision to change to the Streetfighter class. The terrible condition's on the second day and knowledge that I was selling the bike meant I took it pretty easy, despite that I was still up the front and battling for podiums, at least in the dry!!
I've now completed my first race meeting on the new Triumph (see race reports) and despite some teething problems, I'm happy with the bike and looking forward to Oulton in October.
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