Charlie King Takes His First Triumph Triple Challenge Win
Charlie King managed to take his first ever Triumph Triple Challenge win in the first race of the weekend at Brands Hatch. As the majority of the riders took part in the first weekend of the season at Brands Hatch they were all fairly familiar with the track and were able to use that past experience to achieve some very fast laps which made for an excellent race.
Dan Helyer had qualified first earlier in the day even though he actually came off towards the end of qualifying, luckily his team managed to get his bike repaired and ready for the race. Helyer held pole position while Chrissy Rouse was in second and Charlie King in third. Unfortunately Helyer did not get off to a good start and dropped down to fourth position while King shot forward in to first. Rouse did not let him get away though and was immediately on his tail by the first corner. Meanwhile Helyer was making his way back up and was following the two battling front runners most of the lap until right at the end he managed to squeeze past Rouse by the end of the first lap.
The battle for first was not the only one going on in the first couple of laps, Aleix Aulestia the Spaniard was trading places with Phil Atkinson in a fight for fourth. By the end of the third lap it was still King in the lead followed by Helyer then Rouse but the Geordie boy Chrissy was not letting Helyer out of his sights and was breathing down his neck the entire time.
A surprise move from Aulestia in the fifth lap shocked everyone as he jumped in to second from fourth in the blink of an eye and he was not going to give up his newly earned spot without a fight, he remained trading places with Rouse and Helyer the entire race while Charlie King put in near on perfect lap after lap and only lost first briefly to Rouse in the ninth lap.
The last lap saw Helyer come from fourth past Aulestia then Rouse to take second while Rouse claimed third and Aulestia ended up fourth after a fighting attempt at podium. Sam Cox followed closely behind to take third in the cup as King and Helyer had not only came first and second respectively overall but in the cup class too.
We caught up with King to talk about his first ever Triple Challenge win:
โI am absolutely ecstatic with the result! I was determined to maintain first position to take the win and I didnโt want to let Chrissy through to take the win even though it was a real punch up at the front the entire race!โ
Dan Helyer, who not only managed to take second but actually set a new Triple Challenge lap record, had this to say about the race:
โThey were all riding so well, it was co close between the top four of us, it was impossible to pass they were so good. I did have a few places where I was faster than them but it was just getting close enough to them to put the pass on. On the last lap somehow I found a new lap record and got fourth to second! I am really made up!โ
An very intense day of racing to start off the weekend at Brands Hatch which hopefully is a sign of excellent things to come for the rest of the meeting.
