Booth-Amos: We’ll start again at Jerez

Tom Booth-Amos is hopeful of putting a “tough weekend” in Austin behind him, and rediscovering the feeling at Jerez that led to his first top 20 Moto3 finish.

The odds were always stacked against the Englishman in Texas, whose track time during his first visit to the Circuit of the Americas was severely hampered by a Friday crash and bad weather.

“I did seventeen laps before the race,” he explained. “Friday was a waste of time with exactly the same outcome as the race. I lost the front and high-sided and destroyed the bike. So, I only did ten laps or so on Friday. Tough weekend.”

From there the 23-year old was unable to find a cure for vague front end feeling in time for the race. After starting from a personal best qualifying position of 23rd, Booth-Amos was fighting with fellow rookies Sergio Garcia and Filip Salac for 17th place. 

But a fast, spectacular crash at turn ten on lap eleven put paid to his hopes of a second straight finish in the junior category.

“It was the same as the feeling I had in morning warm-up: no front grip,” he said. “I lost the front and then had a massive high-side after I lost it. It was a shame because I was with the other rookies. It would have been a good result.

“The bike is not doing well. Honestly right now it’s impossible not to crash. Going back to Europe and see how we get on there.

“I have no idea what caused it. I couldn’t stop it. Every time I braked at the end of the back straightaway, turn one, I went over that and then I’d come in. It was the same thing for my team-mate. It’s a shame, but we’ll see how we get on in the next race.”

Was his tyre choice in any way responsible? “No, I went M/M and had no grip from the start,” he said. “A little after five laps the tyre was destroyed. That’s what it felt like. So I’m not sure we made the right decision there.

“But keep learning. This one was a difficult one. Obviously America is a tough track and the bumps just make it even harder.”

It has been a bruising start for the 2017 British MotoStar Champion, after he broke his foot testing in Qatar. Booth-Amos was then in visible discomfort after the Friday fall in Austin.

“Yeah, I was feeling it,” he said. “For some reason, I don’t know, my left leg locked up. The muscle in my shin locked and when I was trying to go back a gear I couldn’t go back. It just went really stiff.

“So that’s a shame. Go back to Spain now and get some physio and whatever and then carry on. We made a lot of progress during the race and I was fighting for 17th place. We will start again in Jerez.”