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MotoGP Silverstone: Skinner ‘buzzing after awesome weekend’

Rory Skinner completed his debut in Moto2 as the top American Racing rider at Silverstone for the British GP.

The Bennetts British Superbike regular got his first taste of world championship racing in the 18-lap intermediate class battle as the closing spectacle to Sunday’s schedule with the Scot coming home in 21st, two places higher than season rookie Sean Dylan Kelly.

With impressive progress shown across the weekend, the 20-year-old certainly made the paddock sit up and take notice, having never set eyes on his Kalex Triumph until the start of the event.

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“Pretty awesome to be honest!” Skinner exclaimed when asked about his home GP weekend.

"It's a dream come true for me. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to race in Grand Prix and today was the day that happened!

“It was a long race, taken me a few laps to get settled in, like maybe the first five or six laps, just taking me a little while to find my feet,” he said of race day. “I've never raced against these guys before, well not on this machinery around this track. So it’s just taken me a while to figure out how I was riding, how the other guys were riding and once we got five laps in I kind of found my rhythm, find a bit of my Mojo and we just started making a bit of progress.

"I enjoyed it, battling with the likes of Simoni Corsi. He's been in Grand Prix since I can remember so to be battling with people like him with a wealth of knowledge, it was really good.

“I learned more about the bike in that race than I have all weekend, so I think it's put us in good stead for Austria.”

With his first race weekend now under his belt, and another scheduled for a fortnight’s time, the Amercian Racing garage was in high spirits.

“Everybody was just so buzzing,” Skinner commented. "I can't explain how good the environment and the vibe has been in the team this weekend. Considering I'd never met any of them really before Wednesday and never met any of my crew members. I'd never even seen the bike until Wednesday. So for being completely new experience, I loved it.

“It couldn't have been any better. The people I've got around me were fantastic and I really felt at home straightaway. Thanks to John [Hopkins] and Eitan [Bitbul] from American Racing Team for allowing that and another thanks to Darren [Fry] and Nigel [Snook] from FS-3 my team back in British Superbikes for allowing me to take the opportunity.

“It's been such a mentally filling weekend, everything being so new and being back in the Grand Prix paddock after being away for five years from when I was in the Red Bull Rookies Cup.

“There's been so much to take in this weekend I don't think my head will actually stop working until about Tuesday! I've got to leave to go to Thruxton on Wednesday so it's another back-to-back but I'm looking forward to going home and just processing everything, watching all the sessions back and just understanding and analysing everything over the weekend.

“Massive thanks to everybody for all the support this weekend. It's been awesome!”

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