Aaron Silvester puts frustrations behind him for fifth-place finish at Silverstone

Tattershall rider delighted with Pirelli National Superstock 600 showing...
Aaron Silvester. Photo: David YeomansAaron Silvester. Photo: David Yeomans
Aaron Silvester. Photo: David Yeomans

After a tense and thrilling battle for position through the 22-lap race, Aaron Silvester crossed the finish line in fifth place in round three of the 2020 Pirelli National Superstock 600 championship which took place at Silverstone on Sunday.

Qualifying went well for the Tattershall rider who claimed a third row start to his race and he said: “We can work with that it wasn’t an ideal session but I think we have the race pace to fight for a good result.”

As the lights went out Silvester settled into eighth place, determined to stay out of trouble but the pace was fast and furious and he lost four places finding himself down in 12th position on lap five.

But as the race unfolded he made it back up into ninth and was challenging for position within a group of four other riders. His progress was halted two laps later when a crash further downfield brought the safety car out.

When the car left the track on lap 15 the race was back on; Silvester entered into a tremendous battle for the final podium position mixing it with four or five other riders and maintaining his seventh place.

It all came to a head when the two leading riders crashed on the penultimate lap leaving five riders all challenging for the lead and Silvester was elevated up to fifth position which he held to the chequered flag and so close was the action that he was just 0.8s behind the race winner Rhys Irwin.

Silvester picked up 11 championship points for his fifth place at Silverstone, his first of the current campaign and jumps straight into 14th place in the rider standings with three rounds (five races) to go.

Silvester commented: “Finally! So happy to get a finish to reflect the efforts that we, as a team, make to go racing! Lots of drama with people diving up the inside every chance they could, while I just tried to keep a cool head and stay out of trouble, which thankfully paid off, finishing 0.8 from the winner.

"Words can’t describe how thankful I am to Andrew & Jo of A & J Racing for their efforts to get me back out for this round and sticking by me after wrecking the bike at the previous meeting. With a top five finish under my belt, I'm confident we can keep the ball rolling as we go to Oulton Park."

The next round is at Oulton Park on September 18-20 and this time Silvester will have two bites at the cherry as there are two races at the Cheshire circuit.