While other guys of his age may have had thoughts of winding down, Stockton’s Colin Mooney did the exact opposite last year and embarked on his first full season of motorcycle racing.
And to the amazement of even himself, he exceeded all expectations and finished second in Thundersport 500 Senior Cup at the age of 50.
Now, with the new season set to start at Brands Hatch this weekend, he’s determined to go one better and win the title in 2015.
The Honda CB500 rider says he learned plenty in his debut year and can’t wait for the new campaign to begin.
“It was brilliant ast year,” he said. “I set myself some goals of top five finishes in the seniors championship and in some races, but I ended up having a few wins and finishing second in the championship.
“That was better than I expected by a long way.
“I’d been involved in motorsport for a long time but not as a rider, so to go out and do that was amazing.
“I’ve got a year of experience under my belt now and I learned a lot, especially in the early part of the year - there are a lot of things I would do differently now.
“I started the season with one bike and finished with two - they’re both ready to race now and I’m looking forward to Brands Hatch.”
The Senior Cup - for riders over the age of 40 - runs concurrently with the overall series and Mooney regularly got the better of of many of his younger rivals.
“I had some good overall finishes and I was beating some of the younger guys,” he said.
“Out of 100 riders who contested the overall championship over the year I finished 11th and only one senior finished ahead of me, so I was very happy with that.”
Mooney has had the bodywork on his machines refreshed courtesy of Peter Larmouth at Triple S while Kevin Liddle Motorsport are also on board and tyre sponsors to date are Mark Parnell and Chris Ravenscroft. He’s hoping to attract further backing too, which could play a big part in propelling him towards the title.
“My aim is to go all-out in a bid for the seniors championship,” he said, “and hopefully a top 10 finish overall.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that we can win races this season so the championship has to be a realistic aim.”
The nine-round Nationwide Traffic Solutions Thundersport 500 is a breeding ground for the British Superbike Championship and is more popular than ever this year. With up to 60 entrants likely on each race weekend, there will be three Thundersport 500 races per day this year, with every rider racing in two of them.
Davey Todd from Brotton (Kawasaki ZXR) will also be in Thundersport action this weekend while Tom Leonard from Hartburn competes in the Golden Era Superbikes on his Kawasaki ZXR750, young Jak Liddle (Yamaha R6) rides in the ultra-competitive Pre-National 600 class and Neil Bainbridge takes his mighty Kawasaki ZX10 into Superstock 1000 action.
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