Silvester extends Superstock lead

The fast, flowing Hampshire circuit is one of Silvester’s favourites and it showed when he went quickest straight away in Friday’s opening practice session.

He took that confidence into qualifying on Saturday and despite a scare when there was a brief rain shower during the session, Silvester took pole position by 0.017 of a second with his main championship rival, Asher Durham, down in fifth.

Sunday’s 14-lap race started in dry conditions and Silvester got the hole shot to lead lap one, but Thruxton presents lots of slipstreaming and overtaking opportunities and try as he might he couldn’t break away from the pack.

Silvester held the lead for the first four laps but by now the race had become a frantic seven rider battle with positions changing on almost every corner. As the race progressed Silvester stayed in the top three but just as he re-took the lead on lap seven a brief rain shower threatened to bring the race a premature end.

Thankfully, it didn’t rain hard enough for the race to be stopped so the riders battled on to the flag.

Silvester started the last lap in second place behind Durham and on the fast approach to the final chicane, he out-braked Durham to take the lead which he held on the dash to the flag to win by just 0.011 of a second, with Durham second and Owen Jenner third, 0.43 of a second further back.

Silvester said: “Wow, what a crazy race! It was awesome racing throughout, even when the rain came to add a little more drama. The headwind was strong down the back straight but I made the pass in to the last chicane and got great drive out to hold on to first place.

"Thanks to my A&J Racing Team for giving me such a good bike all weekend. Thanks to all my sponsors too; it was great to see Andy and Karen from County Crest Pallets trackside this weekend. I really appreciate their support”.

The win means Silvester has extended his championship lead to 26 points and he heads to the next round brimming with confidence.

*Brother Max Silvester also had a successful weekend despite suffering pain from his not yet fully healed shoulder which he injured at Oulton Park earlier in the season.

In only his second season racing at National level, Max qualified in 24th place and on Sunday he had a solid race to take 23rd place with a best lap just 2.8 seconds slower than his race-winning sibling – a personal best at the challenging Thruxton circuit.

The next round of the championship takes place at the Silvesters’ home circuit, Cadwell Park, over the Bank Holiday weekend on 26th-28th August.