Thompson claims best result of his campaign

Horncastle rider Jack Thompson was at Donington Park for round three of the Ducati Performance TriOptions Cup where he recorded a ninth place in the first race but was unable to start the second because of a problem on the starting grid.
Jack Thompson. Photo: David Yeomans.Jack Thompson. Photo: David Yeomans.
Jack Thompson. Photo: David Yeomans.

Qualifying went better than he anticipated for the Lincolnshire rider who secured a fourth row start to race one on Saturday.

He said: “I enjoyed a good first day here at Donington Park - not usually my best circuit but I found some form and was 11th in practice, and then 10th in qualifying - just 1.7 seconds off pole so I am pretty pleased with that.”

Starting from the fourth row Thompson maintained his position but on lap nine the race leader crashed and then another rider high sided which caused the red flag to halt the race.

Because the race had not reached two thirds distance a re-run over five laps was declared with Thompson getting a good start to move through to seventh place on the first lap. But in a five-lap dash the action is frantic and he eventually crossed the finish line in a strong ninth position to pick up his best result of the current campaign and seven championship points.

Heavy rain fell on the track just prior to the start of the second race but as Thompson took his place on the grid the team put his wet tyre in backwards and there was no time to change it so he was forced to sit out the race.

But in some ways that was not such a bad thing as many riders crashed in the tricky conditions.

Thompson said: “Sadly it wasn’t to be today as it absolutely hoofed it down as we were going out, which resulted in a wheel change on the grid.

“And with 30 seconds to go I noticed an unfortunate mistake which was that my front wheel was the wrong way round in the bike.

“So with no time to turn it round, I had to pull in as soon as possible for safety reasons.”

The next round is at Brands Hatch over the weekend of June 14-16.