Taz Taylor Racing – Brands Hatch GP

17-year-old Taz Taylor sponsored by DLR Transport, riding for the RS Racing Honda, turned things round a little bit this weekend at the final round at Brands Hatch. The youngster and his team boss Ryan Saxelby pulled out the RS Racing 125 2 Stroke Honda for the final race of the season. The bike that won the 125 Championship with Kyle Ryde in 2011 and James Lodge in 2010 and they brought it out of retirement at Brands for Taz to ride.

The most incredible race of the year took place on the Saturday between Taz and Scott Deroue. All season a 125 machine has not been able to match the pace and power of the Moto3 bikes. Taz managed to qualify in second place on the grid for the opening race on Saturday. He had never ridden the RS Racing Honda until Friday morning and therefore did not have much chance to test out a practice start.

Taz got a terrible start off the grid and was in a lowly eighth place after the opening lap and he knew he had a lot of work to do on the little 125 machine. He soon got his head down and started working his way through the pack and at one point was two seconds a lap faster than anyone else on the circuit. By lap five of the ten lap race Taz had amazingly got through to first place and was battling with his year-long rival Scott Deroue. The pair went into the most amazing five laps in a battle for the winning honours and on the final lap of the race the pair swapped places, touched elbows and fairings on most corners. They came out of the final turn shoulder to shoulder and it was a drag to the line, Taz took the win by 0.002.

For the second race Taz started from second again and another poor start saw him drop back to sixth after lap one. Again he had his work cut out to push forwards; the pace at the front was much quicker than Saturday so despite Tazs’ great lap times he was struggling to catch the leaders. From lap eight Taz certainly upped his game and was bridging the gap to Scott Deroue and Ed Rendell. Going into the penultimate lap Taz had brought the difference between him and the leaders down from 2.4 to 0.6 and he was lapping nearly a second quicker than the front runners. Unfortunately he made a small mistake on the final lap, Ed Rendell crashed out on the last corner of the lap which promoted Taz to a fantastic second place.

Taz Taylor – “It was a real honour to be able to ride the 125 this weekend for Ryan; I know how much he loved the two strokes and how good the bike was when Kyle and Jonathan rode it. I knew I couldn’t drop to third in the Championship and I couldn’t win it and wanted to try something different and always wanted to have a go a Ryan’s 125.

What an awesome weekend, I didn’t really know what to expect with the weekend as no 125 has been on the podium this year so I wasn’t sure what it would bring. When I was up near the top on Friday I thought maybe, just maybe I might have half a chance of getting on the podium but thought it might be a bit of a long shot on race distance.

I think I’ve had the most fun riding this weekend and the first race with Scott was just mega, we were both fighting so hard for the win and despite my horrendous start I wanted to give it my all. I put everything I had into that last lap and we were touching as we came out of the last turn and I just kept it pinned! I can’t believe I took the win by 0.002, that’s crazy.

I got another bad start in race two but I got held up a bit in the opening laps so didn’t think it would be possible to repeat what happened on Saturday. I got myself up to a podium position place and I could see the leaders and I knew I was getting closer. I made a mistake on the last lap but over the moon to take second.

I just want to thank Ryan and the team for this opportunity this weekend to ride the 125 and it’s been a pleasure and a great experience. I would also like to thank all my personal sponsors this season, without them this wouldn’t have been possible. The year has been fantastic and really enjoyable, I was gutted not to win the Championship but we’ve had some unreal races all season.

Thank you also to my Dad for working all hours so I could race this season, he’s been unreal!”

Moto3 – 2015 Final Standings – WELL DONE TAZ FROM ALL AT DLR TRANSPORT.

2015 TAZ TAYLOR RACING SPONSORS

 K.C.S, Hookless Holiday Homes, DLR Transport, FLG, A-Plant, Eclipse Motorsport, JKT, Shoei, Sidi, Putoline, BD Site Services, Mike Ashton, G.Jones Services, Paul Derbyshire, Forcefield, Two Wheel Centre, Snowy, The Tyre Shop, 4TheWeekend Barbershop.

 Facebook – www.facebook.com/RaceTazTaylor

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