Championship points for Hipwell

Hipwell, on the Globalnet Telecoms Yamaha, finished the weekend with two top 15 places.

Friday’s two free practice sessions saw the Harworth racer post a best time of 18th out of the 29 riders.

Saturday morning’s qualifying session saw him improve and finish in 17th place where he would start from for the afternoon’s sprint race.

Hipwell got away to a good start, passed a number of rivals but due to his bike lacking top end speed was unable to catch a group in front and came home in 12th place.

His fastest lap time would see him start from 14th on the grid for the main race the following day.

After Sunday morning’s warm up session with the Yamaha still down on top end speed the CDH team decided to put the spare engine in prior to the afternoon’s race.

Hipwell didn’t get off to a good start in the race, dropping back to 16th on lap one.

But a number of crashes saw him move up the pecking order until with four laps remaining, his rear tyre started to go off.

He was in danger of losing the back end when cornering and decided to ease up and settle for 14th place.

With the Yamaha of Nikki Coates in front of him slowing down Hipwell overtook him on the last lap to bring the Globalnet Telecoms Yamaha past the chequered flag in 13th.

Hipwell said “I’m pleased with the way I rode, and the fact that the changes we had made saw me lapping nearly a second and a half faster than I had done in the first race.”

Seven championship points moved Hipwell to 13th in the standings.