MOTORCYCLING: East Kirkby's Philp claims points in opening round of championship

TeamDRAPER rider Tommy Philp completed his races at Silverstone safely in the first rounds of the British Supersport championships at the weekend.
Tommy Philp in action at Silverstone. Photo: Dave YeomansTommy Philp in action at Silverstone. Photo: Dave Yeomans
Tommy Philp in action at Silverstone. Photo: Dave Yeomans

Tommy, who is living at East Kirkby after relocating from Slough, qualified in 17th place to start the first of his two races from the sixth row.

The track was wet and slippery from a heavy shower of rain on Saturday, making conditions treacherous for the start of the sprint race which was set to run over 10 laps of the Northamptonshire circuit. At the start, Tommy moved up into 15th position and was beginning to settle into the race when the red flag brought things to a halt on the third lap because the rain returned.

At the restart, which was now classed as a wet race, they had hardly got underway before a rider crashed, with his bike leaking fluid on to the track – resulting in another red flag. On the warm-up for the restart, more riders fell and race control decided to abandon proceedings altogether.

With the sprint race abandoned, Tommy was short on track time but lined up on the grid for the start of the feature race on Sunday, in dry conditions.

This time the race got underway with no problems and Tommy settled into 16th place, taking it steady until his tyres had some warmth in them. He then began to make his move forward and was up into 14th position on lap five of 12.

He became involved in a four way battle for position which lasted for the remainder of the race, but he made up another place to cross the finish line in 13th place and pick up three championship points.

Tommy commented: “It is a shame the sprint race was cancelled because I was riding well without any problem. But riders were dropping their bikes at almost every corner and it was just getting silly. The race will be run at another track later in the year.

“My draperRACING Yamaha was running very well and I was pleased to finish the feature race in the points. It’s a good start to the season and we can build on this next time out.”

The next round is at Oulton Park over May Day bank holiday.

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