Seventeen year old Jordan Thompson flew the flag admirably for Team Appleyard/Macadam at the sixth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship this weekend at Mallory Park with two excellent top ten rides.
With team-mates Deane Brown still recovering from his leg operation and Ashley Beech forced to miss his race after destroying his bike in qualifying, Jordan rode to a season’s best 7th and 8th places to give the team a much needed lift.
Jordan’s first race of the day was the rescheduled race from the earlier Donington Park event where the Relentless British 125GP class couldn’t compete due to the poor weather conditions. Taking up his second row grid qualifying position, Jordan started well and avoided some early race carnage to run strongly in 7th place which he maintained to the chequered flag. In the next Relentless British 125GP race, he again started strongly and ran at the tail end of the large pack dicing for second position. Jordan’s held on to this pack for much of the race eventually rounding off his weekend with a well deserved eighth place. After the race he commented; “Team Manager Robin Appleyard left me in no doubt as to what he wanted of me and so I was pleased to be able to meet his expectations! Seriously though, Robin’s advice has really helped me as a rider this season. My previous best position was 13th so to get two top ten finishes this weekend really shows the progress we are making.”
Ashley Beech meanwhile had a frustrating day having to sit out the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship race. Explaining the situation, he said; “We were pushing hard in practice and qualifying and were struggling with grip issues particularly on the fast downhill entry onto the main straight. We couldn’t find the setting we needed and eventually ran out of luck in qualifying when the front tucked under on the long Gerard’s corner causing the crash. Unfortunately the bike got comprehensively wrecked and with no chance of repair, that was my weekend over.”
Summarising, Team Manager Robin Appleyard said; “This was another tough weekend for the team but Jordan’s performance was excellent. He is running slightly ahead of where we expected him to be at this stage of the season so that’s very encouraging. The team have a lot of work to do now to get Ash’s bike ready for the next round at Oulton Park but we’ll be raring to go again when the time comes. Unfortunately Deane won’t quite be fit in time for Oulton but we’re hoping he’ll return to action at Knockhill in August.”
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