The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Ben Stafford shrugged off another disappointing qualifying bid to finish eighth at round ten of the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship over the weekend.
Having travelled through the night to reach Oulton Park following a Silicone Engineering meet at the Manx GP, the Saracen’s Head ace found himself down in 18th position after Friday’s Q1.
Changes were made to the bike overnight – but rain on Saturday ensured that Stafford’s time would not be bettered during Q2.
Sunday’s race day warm-up was then held on Saturday night, so the mechanics made some radical changes to the machine. At the end of the session Stafford was happy with the result.
With the Superstock 600 event last race of a busy Sunday, it was always going to be interesting on a cooling track. Starting from the sixth row, Stafford was looking for one of his great starts to stand a chance of staying in a points scoring position.
He got away well, but at turn three two riders went down and the South Holland ace had to take evasive action to miss the rider as the bike cartwheeled down the track. He was determined to move through the field, though, and pulled off some great passing manoeuvres on the way to eventually cross the line in a respectable eighth place.
That saw him bag more points and leaves him just outside the top ten of the standings with two rounds to go. Stafford travels with the Silicone team to Assen next weekend, where they will join the Dutch championship.
