Final race day for Thomas.
Dean Thomas finished his motorcycle race career with two solid finishes on his Samsung Suzuki at Brands Hatch.
Summing up both races he said, “That was eventful! They were pretty good races really. Obviously the results were no where near what we would like them to be.”
He finished in sixteenth and nineteenth but it didn’t stop him enjoying the race, “We weren’t at the pointy end and we weren’t running in the top ten, but they were two good races, more so the second one than the first. The first one was ok coming in sixteenth place was frustrating as I know I’m capable of running up the front but those days are gone now by the looks of it. It was good fun, a good race, a hard work but it was what it was. The Samsung Suzuki team have been great all year, but they have had restrictions they’ve had to work round with the machinery and they have done the best they can which they proved this weekend.”
For race two Thomas and his team-mate Sean Emmett had an on track battle which kept them both amused. “The second race for me was the most fun I’ve had for a while, even though Sean Emmett and myself were dicing with each other for eighteenth position,” he explained, “It was a giggle because we are both on the exact same motorbike, on the exact same tyres and it shows that neither of us are lacking in ability or speed, just the machinery underneath us just isn’t quite up to the job. It was fun. It was almost like having our own race.”
He would have loved a top ten for his last race as he went on to say, “For me it was ok, to finish in the top ten and to finish at the pointy end and to finish my racing career would have been nice but on the flip side to have a fun race like that was really good.”
With a whole new challenge ahead of running his own race team Thomas hadn’t really thought about the fact that he is hanging up his leathers, until after race two. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I just thought, ‘I’ll move on to the next level that is the end of racing that is not a problem.’ It didn’t cross my mind until after the second race and then it sunk in. I thought, ‘I’m not going to do that again.’ That was a bit of a change, I was a bit, ‘Ooookkkkkaaayyyyyyy.’ I’m going to miss it; I really am going to miss it. I’ve been racing motorbikes for seventeen years and it has pretty much been my life. I’m not going to be the guy sitting in the seat doing the racing but I am going to be the guy sitting in the garage watching the guys do it which is probably more nerve racking for me as I’ve never had to do that before. It’s the end of one era but there is a new challenge round the corner and it is one that I’m desperate to take on properly and do a good job.”
