Oulton action for bike duo

Aaron Clarke earned 19th and 20th-place finishes in the highly competitive Pirelli National Superstock 1000 championship class at Oulton Park this weekend.
Aaron Clarke.Aaron Clarke.
Aaron Clarke.

The Coningsby rider completed his qualifying in 23rd position and began the first race on Saturday from an eighth row grid position.

He was challenging for position within a large group of riders dropping as far as 24th mid race.

But he gradually made up ground and, by lap 10 of 12, had moved up to 20th position.

Too far behind the next rider to make a pass he had to settle for 20th place, just a few places away from the points.

Starting the second encounter from the ninth row, Clarke got away to a good start, making up places to 24th on the first lap.

He went on to secure 21st place on lap two and was up to 20th one lap later.

When the safety car came onto the track mid race to allow marshals to clear a crash he was promoted to 19th and remained in that position to the chequered flag.

Clarke said: “We changed the suspension settings after the first race which did make a difference for me.

“I also recorded a new personal best lap time in the second race so although we are still a few places away from the points we are moving forward.”

The Stock 1000 don’t go to Assen with the rest of the classes as they had a round of their championship at the World Superbike round at Donington earlier in the year.

The next round for Clarke will be at Donington Park over the weekend of October 4-6.

It was a difficult weekend for Tattershall rider Aaron Silvester in round nine of the Pirelli National Superstock 600 championship, but despite a difficult qualifying he fought back and recorded a 14th and 19th place in his two races.

Qualifying didn’t go as well as he had hoped and he started the first race from a sixth row grid position.

His start wasn’t great and he lost out on the first lap but fought back and picked off a couple of riders plus benefitted from some that either retired or crashed.

He made it through to 14th place on lap seven but was just a bit too far away from the group in front of him and had to be content with 14th place and two championship points at the flag.

Starting the second race on Sunday from the sixth row once again he did get a better start but after running wide into the first corner he lost six places and had a lot of work to do to make any impression on the race.

He said: “I watched the group ahead get away while struggling to get past a fast bike.

“Once I had passed, it was too late and all I could do was maintain the gap.”

Silvester did make up a few places during the race but not enough to get up into a point scoring position and ended up crossing the finish line in 19th position. The next round is in four weeks’ time, October 4-6 at Donington Park.