James McManus ended his first season in the Dickies Junior Supersport series in the medical centre, but not before putting in another fantastic performance riding through the pack to finish 17th from 29th on the grid in race one.
Unfortunately, he was caught up in an incident going into Druids in race two. After what happened to his older brother at the circuit earlier in the year the was obviously a lot of concern. A trip to the circuit Medical Centre revealed that James McManus has suffered a hairline fracture in his right foot.
Qualifying
The Dickies Junior Supersport riders only get one free practice session on the Friday then it is straight into qualifying later in the day. James McManus had never ridden the Brands Hatch GP circuit but all the tracks had been new to him this year so he remained undaunted.
During the twenty-minute free practice session he managed to put in ten laps posting a fastest time of 1:48.993 on the Team #109 Kawasaki.
Qualifying was also a twenty-minute session late in the afternoon. McManus was able to reduce his lap time to 1:46.940 which put him 29th out of 42 on the grid for the first race on Saturday.
Race One
James McManus made a good get-away at the start of the ten lap race one as he kept out of trouble on a crowded circuit through the first corners. By the end of the first lap he had gained a couple of positions and was 27th. He continued making progress taking another place on lap two then four on the third lap. McManus was soon knocking on the door of a top twenty finish.
By the halfway stage of the race he was third in a group of ten riders battling for 19th place. A lap later and he was tucked in and just a couple of tenths behind Oscar Pinson in 20th.
After briefly dropping to 21st McManus overtook Pinson and Hopper to move into 19th place and lead the group of what was now six riders.
On the final lap he held position and with a couple of riders falling without injury, further up the order, McManus took a superb 17th place after starting 29th.
Race Two
The second race of the weekend was an 8 lap affair but was much briefer than that for James McManus. On the very first lap as he approached Druids three riders came together and McManus was one of them caught up in the incident. He suffered a hairline fracture to his right foot, but the recovery time is not expected to be long for the injury.
It wasn’t the way that James McManus or the team would have wanted to end the BSB season but it is not a major injury and James McManus has made amazing progress in 2019.
Watch this space for what both James and Eugene McManus Junior will be up to in 2020.
Photo: David Watson