The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Ben Wilson collected 23 points from the latest Dickies British Supersport Championship round at Brands Hatch over the weekend.
The in-form Kirton speedster managed finishes of fourth and sixth at the Kent circuit to leave him sixth in the rider standings.
Qualifying went well for the Lincolnshire rider, who was placed on the third row of the grid for Saturday’s sprint race.
As the lights went out Wilson got away to his customary quick start and was running well in sixth place in his class when the red flag halted the race because of rain.
After a short delay the rain stopped and, although it was now classed as a wet race, the majority of riders opted to stick with the dry tyres as the track was drying quickly.
The race had been cut to eight laps, so the action was expected to be frantic – and it certainly was.
Wilson again got a good start and settled straight into fifth place in his class.
At half race distance the rain briefly returned, but as it was a wet race this time there was to be no red flag and the GP2 riders dropped back as they were running on slick tyres.
The track remained relatively dry, but the front runners all slowed their pace.
But not Wilson. He made it up to third place on lap six and on the penultimate lap he snatched the race lead at Graham Hill Bend.
He held the lead through the next two corners, before being beaten back by Alistair Seeley and Jack Kennedy who were both scrapping for the win.
Brad Jones also got past, but Wilson remained in a safe fourth position.
Starting Sunday’s feature race from the third row, he flew off the line to another good start and settled into sixth place until, on lap five Charlie Nesbitt demoted him to seventh.
He spent a couple of laps exchanging places with Richard Kerr and eventually made the pass stick on lap 12. But his progress was short lived, as he made a mistake at Druids, ran wide and lost four places.
Wilson was determined to do well and began to make up the places once more and on the final lap he passed Kerr once again at the final corner and held his position by a whisker to secure sixth place by 0.74s over Kerr.
Wilson said: “I took a gamble on a decision with the bike today and unfortunately it wasn’t the right one, so my apologies to the team.
“We are trying really hard every round to make progress and today feels like a backward step but I will take the positives from yesterday and move onto Knockhill ready to move forward again.”
The next round is at Knockhill on Scotland on June 28-30.
The short and technical circuit has been the scene of many race wins by Wilson in the past and he will be looking forward to two strong races there.
Rider standings: 1st Alastair Seeley 175pts; 2nd Jack Kennedy 145pts; 3rd Brad Jones 132pts; 4th Harry Truelove 79pts; 5th Richard Kerr 68pts; 6th Ben Wilson 67pts.
