Strong start to racing season puts Maxwell in good shape for TT

Setup changes to the bike and podium finishes in the first national road races of the season have put Thomas Maxwell in a position to record strong results in the Isle of Man TT, which starts on May 28.

The Mullingar man has recovered from the injury that compromised the curtailled 2021, and admitted to making a tentative start to 2022, but a second and a third in the superbike races at Cookstown confirmed the increasingly good form he has shown in recent years.

The second meeting of the season was at Tandragee, one of his favourite events, where he qualified third on the superbike after the setup changes. It was raining on race day and Thomas made a good start in the open race to lead by five seconds after a lap. Unfortunately the race was red flagged due to an incident and he was unable to confirm his form with a result.

Thomas started his season with testing at Bishopscourt to help get over the long layoff enforced by the Covid-19 restrictions. "We hadn’t really done anything in two years, so we wanted to get back up to speed on the bikes. And as well as that, we changed to Dunlop tyres (from Pirelli) and it took time to set up the front end of the bike.

“In Cookstown we got third in the first race and second in the grand final, but I was riding very tense. After the race we sent the suspension to Mark Arnott [Moto Shox, Hillsborough, County Down] and he sorted the front end, so we qualified third in Tandragee and the bike felt brilliant. I was riding a lot better and in the race I got a good lead. I passed Micko Sweeney in the first corner and got away from there, but it was red flagged after two laps, but I think I had it in the bag – it was looking good anyway.”

If the race had run one more lap, it would have been an official result.

With a new confidence on the Kawasaki, Thomas says he can fight for wins in the remainder of the season. He is now looking forward to the TT on the Isle of Man. He says it’s a learning curve and he will play himself in. He’ll be racing in the superbike, supersport and supertwin classes.

“The senior race will be a bit of a test. It’s six laps but I’m looking forward to it, I have a real good mechanic and the bike is good, we’ll try anyway.”

Thomas is on the lookout for sponors, and anyone interested can contact him online.