Crash damages Silvester's hopes at Donington Park

Donington Park hosted the penultimate round of the British Superbike Championship at the weekend and Horncastle’s Aaron Silvester headed there fighting for a top three finish in the Pirelli National Junior Superstock Championship.
By Mike Woodward
Published 3rd Oct 2022, 16:16 BST
Updated 3rd Oct 2022, 16:16 BST
Aaron Silvester leads brother Max into a corner at Donington Park. Photo: MotoAero Photography.Aaron Silvester leads brother Max into a corner at Donington Park. Photo: MotoAero Photography.
Aaron Silvester leads brother Max into a corner at Donington Park. Photo: MotoAero Photography.

Friday practice was run in difficult conditions, as free practice one was run on a wet track whilst session two was rained off after just two laps. Nevertheless, Aaron still managed to finish the day in second place on the timesheets.

Thankfully the weather improved on Saturday and in a dry qualifying session Aaron secured a fourth place start for Sunday’s race.

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The weather for Sunday’s race was sunny but cool and with an early start time of 10.30, the track temperature was still quite low. Unfortunately, having made a great start to secure third place going in to turn one, Aaron was caught out by a cold tyre and he had a big high side coming out of the corner and crashed, putting him out of the race.

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It was a hugely disappointing end to what had been a strong weekend up until then and it means that with zero points scored at this round, Aaron slipped to fifth in the championship with just two races to go.

Aaron is just 15 points off third in the championship and 33 points off second with 50 points up for grabs at Brands, so a top three finish is still on.

On the other side of the garage, brother Max also had a difficult meeting. Having made a fantastic start to the weekend by taking 11th place in the opening wet practice session and 16th in the shortened second session, Max went on to qualify in 26th place and was looking forward to racing on the Donington Park GP layout for the first time on a 600, despite not feeling too well all weekend.

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In Sunday’s race, Max didn’t make the best of starts and he ended up in a scrap for 24th place. Unfortunately, with five laps to go, Max started to have arm pump issues, and with so many hard braking zones on the Donington GP track he struggled to hold his position and eventually finished in 26th place.

Nevertheless, he smashed his personal best time at the track and gained yet more valuable experience in his rookie season in this class.

Max said: “I felt really rough throughout the whole weekend but overall, I’m happy to finish the race and bring home a new PB. It’s all good progress.”

The series moves on to Brands Hatch in a fortnight for the season finale.

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