Kirton speedster Aaron Clarke posted his best-ever finish in the Superstock 600 season finale at Brands Hatch on Sunday.
The draperRacing ace qualified well to start the 12 lap affair from the fourth row – and was running in 12th place when his race was red flagged.
However, Clarke was soon up to ninth place in the six-lap restarted race and then broke into the top five on lap two.
Once in fifth, Clarke powered his draperRACING Yamaha through the final few laps to cross the finish line for fifth place to pick up 11 championship points.
Clarke said: “I felt really good in that race and am so pleased to have brought a top five result and 11 points back to the team today.
“Let’s hope we can both build on this next year and pick up where we left off. I have to thank my team for their hard work this weekend, my bike has been mint.
“Also a huge thank you to Paul Draper, who put the draperRACING team together at the beginning of the season. I think we have done him proud today and he has been so supportive.”
The team will reconvene at Donington Park on April 2 for the opening round of the British Superbike championship.
- The two G&S Racing Kawasaki (Wyberton-based) riders Tom Fisher and Kevin Van Leuven rode 18th and 22nd places respectively in dire conditions at Brands Hatch in the final race of the Superstock 1000 Championship season on Sunday.
After qualifying in 18th place, Fisher began the 12-lap race from a sixth row grid position but tyre choice was a lottery as the weather was neither wet nor dry.
He went for a wet front tyre and a dry rear, but as the race progressed it became obvious that he should have gone for full dry tyres as the track dried quicker than expected.
He completed the first lap in 24th place but was able to make some headway and crossed the finish line just outside the points in 18th place.
Meanwhile, Van Leuven qualified in 15th place and was to start from the fifth row.
He went out on the sighting lap but was unhappy with his tyre choice and came into pit lane to switch to wet tyres back and front.
But that turned out to be the wrong decision and he struggled with grip and tyre degradation throughout the 12 laps, bringing the ZX10 home in 22nd position.
