Two top eight finishes earned a much-improved Ben Wilson 17 points at round seven of the British Supersport Championship over the weekend.
The Kirton racer steered his Gearlink Kawasaki to seventh and eighth places at Thruxton, which sees him take his season’s total to 83 and leaves him 11th in the overall rider standings.
Overall it was a much better showing from Wilson, who was happier to see himself much closer to the leading riders in Hampshire.
Wilson had gone well during free practice, but when it came to the solitary qualifying session the pace had quicker and he completed the session in tenth position.
Starting Saturday’s 12-lap sprint race from the fourth row, the Lincolnshire rider moved up to sixth on the second lap when he overtook his Kawasaki teammate Glenn Irwin – but one lap later Irwin was back in front.
On lap six Wilson was relegated down to eighth when Luke Hedger managed to get past him and, although the action was close, Wilson was unable to progress further and completed the race laps in eighth place.
The second race was a close and exciting affair.
Although Ben did not have the pace of leader Luke Stapleford, he was able to remain in touch with the rest of the front runners.
He managed to get up to seventh pace mixed in with a large group of riders, but on lap nine of 18 he had a huge out of seat moment at the fastest part of the track.
Any other rider would have been scuttled into the gravel, but Wilson is a quality and experienced rider who managed to hold the bike upright, although he did lose a place to ninth.
After regaining his rhythm, the Lincolnshire ace set about chasing and passing Kyle Ryde on lap 16 and was sixth in a group of eight riders all challenging for second place.
The action was heart-stoppingly close – and when James Rispoli crashed on the penultimate lap Wilson was promoted to seventh.
He managed to hold his line through the club chicane but was mugged on the rush to the line by Jake Dixon and crossed the finish line in eighth place.
However, with Sam Hornsey penalised for overtaking under the yellow flag and demoted from sixth to eighth, Wilson was promoted to seventh after the race.
The race was won by series leader Stapleford.
Wilson said: “Until I had my wobble I thought I could maybe get into a podium position.
“I can tell you it’s no fun running over your foot at 140mph which is what happened.
“But we finished both races and I was nearer to the front of the field than I have been for a while so it’s looking promising for Cadwell.”
The next round is at Wilson’s “home” track Cadwell Park – but is not the usual Bank Holiday meeting.
The British Superbike round has been moved forward a week to make room on the race calendar for the MotoGP round at Silverstone, so the Lincolnshire meeting will be held over the weekend of August 21-23.
