From a press release issued by Stu Carter:

GARRETT CARTER UPDATE – PEMBREY, WALES

Garrett Carter finished his first weekend of racing in England with a meeting at Pembrey, Wales on June 25th to the 27th.

The first day consisted of six practice sessions with good weather on the 2-mile circuit located on the southern coast at an old RAF airbase that was converted to a race track by the Formula One team of McLaren.

Garrett was introduced to his new bike, a 2002 Honda RS125 as well as his team members on Friday, the 25th. The team manager is Clive Horton who is a two-time British 125cc Champion as well as a current trainer for the ACU youth road racing development program.

Garrett’s tuner is Nigel Bosworth who is a former British Superbike racer. Nigel worked for Kenny Roberts on the two-stroke GP team, managed the Red Bull British Super Bike team and, until recently, was a manager for the Petronas WSB team. He is now developing a GP motor and chassis for Cosworth.

The team spent the practice day developing the bike and orienting the rider.

The second day was very wet with heavy rains and winds as well as falling temperatures. The team tuned the motor and suspension for the wet and Garrett ran two practice sessions before the first race.

For the first race, his grid position was by order of entry, 23rd. At the end of the 1st lap he was 16th but lowsided starting the second lap in turn three, losing both ends in the fast sweeper. The bike sustained minimum damage and the team quickly prepped it for the next race.

The second race put Garrett on the last row at 26th based on order of finish of the first race.

The wet conditions created some exciting, treacherous racing especially in turn one which is a tight hairpin that requires the riders to slip the clutch through the turn. Garrett saw his way home in third.

Day three offered a dry, cool overcast day with the event being run by the MRO, organizers of the national series. The format included a 15-minute qualifier followed later in the schedule by a 16-lap race. Garrett qualified 9th out of 26 riders, all on RS125s, with a time of 1:04.56; the pole was taken by a time of 1:01:39. Interestingly, the starter used a Welch flag to signal the beginning of the race.

The first half of the race saw Garrett in a three-way rumble for eighth that he eventually cleared himself from. He then passed seventh and sixth with continually improving times. He finished in fifth place with a best time of 1:03.41, just 0.23-second behind fourth. First place put in a fast time of 1:01.85 finishing 28.4 seconds ahead of Garrett.

Garrett has since spent two days with Ron Haslam at Donington and has been invited back next week for testing his RS125 there. He will race at Brands Hatch July 9th, 10th and 11th.