Top five finish for Horncastle's Aaron Silvester after Brands Hatch finale

Going in to the event, Aaron was just 15 points off third in the championship so a top three finish was still mathematically possible. He was third fastest in practice on Friday and happy with the setup of his A&J Racing Yamaha going in to qualifying and race one on Saturday.

Qualifying was run on a wet but rapidly drying track so most riders switched from wet to dry tyres for the last five minutes of the session.

Aaron secured sixth place on the grid for race one, well ahead of his two championship rivals, but just before Saturday’s race a sharp shower soaked the track once again.

As the bikes came to the grid, it was clear that the circuit was drying fast so Aaron chose a wet front and dry rear tyre and made a rapid start, quickly moving up to third which he held to the chequered flag.

With his rivals down in ninth and 16th place, Aaron closed to within six points of third overall going in to Sunday’s final race of the season.

Sunday’s race saw dry conditions but was red flagged almost immediately due to a crash on the opening lap.

At the re-start, Aaron got away in fifth place and was pushing hard to catch the leading riders when he lost the front at Stirling’s Bend and crashed out on lap three. It meant he missed out on a top three finish as he slipped to fifth overall in the championship.

Nevertheless, Aaron has had a superb season with three podium finishes so he will look to build on that in 2023.

Brother Max had a strong weekend on what was only his second visit to the challenging Kent circuit. Max went in to the tricky qualifying session on Saturday feeling confident as he enjoys wet conditions.

As the circuit dried, Max switched to dry tyres but couldn’t get the best out of them and he eventually qualified in 34th place.

After a last-minute change to a dry rear tyre on the grid, Max started race one on the same tyre combination as his brother and it worked well. He made a fantastic start and charged through the field, making up 14 positions to secure 20th place at the flag.

In the re-started race two, Max got boxed in on the opening lap and dropped a few places but he battled back and maintained a consistent race pace to finish in 25th place to round off a successful rookie season.