Championship race third place for sidecar duo

In an eventful weekend at Mallory Park, the Upton duo also gained second and sixth places in the club races in dreadful weather conditions.

Giles and Jen opted to contest the club races as well as the British Championship round to maximise their track experience at the Leicestershire circuit.

Qualifying for the first club races in fifth place, the duo saw heavy rain hit the start of thefirst race.

They were pleased to finish sixth in a field of 23 ,which was a more positive result than expected.

The following day in better conditions the Staintons started the club race from sixth place on the grid.

They had an exciting battle with places constantly exchanging within the top six.

Giles and Jen worked their way through to take a well-deserved second place at the flag.

Jen said: “That was an exciting and quite tactical race where back markers came into play and we had loads of fun.

“We finished in second place with a 59s lap time, which was excellent.”

In the British F2 Sidecar Cup the weather remained dry for qualifying, resulting in Giles and Jen putting in 19 solid laps to qualify in 10th place.

They also achieved a personal best lap time of 59.2s.

Rain fell just before the start of the race, however, and racers, on slick tyres, were given two warm-up laps.

Despite going into the hairpin cautiously, the Upton duo spun off and chose to pull out.

The weather again improved the following day, but the Staintons’ progress was halted in the early stages when a crash caused a red flag.

At the restart the Staintons were trying to hang onto the pack ahead when the outfit just ahead blew its engine and left a trail of oil.

Despite sliding sideways along the track, Giles kept the throttle open and got the outfit safely turned round.

The oil, however, continued to cause problems and the race was ended early after 12 laps.

The Staintons were awarded third place, leaving them eighth in the championship.