British youngster Seth Norman enjoyed the best meeting of his short career at the FIM Track Racing Youth Gold Trophy in Gdansk on Sunday.
Norman dropped just one point from four qualifying races in the 125cc event, which put him into a run-off for second place with two other riders behind winner Noah Urda.
He was up against German rider Thies Schweer and Ukrainian Makar Levishyn who both also ended up on 11, and he ended fourth overall after some controversy at the start line.
GB Youth boss Neil Vatcher explained: “Seth had last pick and ended up with the inside gate, of which the starting grid should have been split into three, meaning he could have gone more towards the favourable gate 2 position, rather than gate 1 which had been the worst gate all afternoon.
“However, the start marshal insisted he start off gate 1, and therefore unfortunately he got clamped on the first corner and never had time to recover, and missed out on a podium finish and finished in fourth place overall.”
It was a busy weekend for three GB riders as Norman, Oliver Bovingdon and Stene Pijper all competed in the European 125cc Youth Track Racing Cup on Saturday at the same venue, scoring seven, seven and four points in their respective groups. In Norman’s case, that saw him miss out on the semi-finals on countback.
All then competed on Sunday, and Vatcher said: “Having now had some track time on the Gdansk circuit, they were hoping to be more competitive, and this was proven as all three improved on their performances from the day previous, showing that experience of riding these European tracks is beneficial.”
Both Bovingdon and Pijper battled hard for their points and from four heats each were worth more than their scores, with Bovingdon again ending up with seven and Pijper with five.