Ross Twyman made a huge step-up last weekend as he took to the track in the National Superstock 600 race at Brands Hatch.
His performance was impressive qualifying in 10th place and finishing in 6th place in the race on Sunday afternoon, having been racing with the leaders from the start of the race.
Speaking to Kent Sports News, Ross explained how much of a jump it was, he said: “It’s quite a big leap going from club racing at ThundersportGB to joining BSB, especially as its my local track you feel quite a bit of pressure to perform as friends and family made the effort to come and watch me”
Having not targeted the top ten for qualifying it served to show that Ross has the talent racing bikes to have a big future.
He added: “Qualifying was good, to get 10th made it better for me to capitalise on that in the race. I got a good start and could tag onto the lead group and get amongst the battle.
“I didn’t expect to run in the front pack at all, we were aiming to get in the points (Top 15) and if we did it would have been a very good weekend for us but to run in fifth most of the race was totally unexpected.”
Ross has limited Superstock experience having made his first appearance this season when it was part of the World Superbike support package at Donington Park.
“When I rode my first race in the Superstock 600 class at WSB we were using the top 20 as a target, then the rain fell in qualifying and I managed to get eighth on the grid and then seventh in the race was a huge boost for me and now to be able to do it in the dry conditions is another boost.”
With such an impressive few races in the Superstock 600s Ross is excited to be able to continue in the class for the rest of the season, and see how he can get on.
He said: “We have now joined to do the rest of the season in the Superstock 600 class but missing Oulton Park due to financial reasons. We hope to race a complete year in 2015.”
Finally we asked Ross just what was it that got him interested in racing bikes, whether it was a family member or something else.
He added: “I got into bike racing because I and my dad went to the Excell bike show in London and whilst looking around there was an Aprilia stand with an Rs125 there and we said it would be something to have on the road when I was 17.
“We got chatting to one of the guys there and he said you can race them at 13 so being a real novice and having no family history in bikes we decided to give it a try and see what happened and I loved it so we decided to stick with it but never realised we would be where we are now.”