There were mixed emotions for SMT Racing at Donington Park at the weekend with Tim and Tristan Reeves taking another superb double victory in the Eastern Airways F1 Sidecar Championship races but Adam Jenkinson seeing his season-long lead in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000cc Championship disappear when he could only manage 13th place.
ForJenkinson, it proved to be a tough weekend as he left with his worst result of the season. Torrential rain left the first qualifying session all but immaterial, putting more emphasis on Saturday’s final session and the hectic 25-minute session saw Adam end up in seventh place overall, good enough for a third row start. An excellent start saw him jump up to fourth but that would be as good as it got for the Knutsford rider as handling issues meant he slipped back as the race progressed eventually finishing in a disappointing 13thplace. The disappointment was further compounded with Championship rival Hudson Kennaugh winning the race and it now means the South African tops the table by three points from Adam, 148 points to 145, with just two races remaining.
Fortunes were the complete opposite in the Sidecar class and, after qualifying in second place, Tim and Tristan took the lead at McLeans on the opening lap of the first Sidecar race although it remained close with Sean Hegarty/James Neave pressuring them throughout. By the fifth of the ten laps, there was just half a second between the two crews but with black clouds above and rain beginning to fall, track conditions became extremely tricky. Indeed, with the rain getting heavier, the red flag came out shortly afterwards and the result declared at seven laps, Tim and Tristan getting the verdict over Hegarty/Neave by 0.510s.
Sunday’s race was a lot simpler affair for the two Kent brothers and having grabbed the lead from the start, they continually extended their lead throughout the ten laps. Lapping almost a second a lap quicker than their rivals, they eventually took the chequered flag by almost 13 seconds to take their 11th win of the season and fifth double. They now lead the title chase from Andy Peach/Charlie Richardson by 101 points with just 150 remaining.
Speaking later, team owner Robin Croft said; “It’s been a mixed weekend with one side of the garage very disappointed and another extremely happy. Having led the Superstock series all season we’re obviously disappointed in our performance this weekend and, like a lot of other teams, the lack of dry track time hindered our progress this weekend. With the problems suffered at Cadwell last time out, we needed as much dry track time as we could get to iron out any lingering issues but, sadly, that wasn’t meant to be and we were chasing our tails somewhat.”
“The gap’s only three points though and with two rounds to go, there’s still everything to play for. We’ve got a couple of test sessions planned for Adam and we’ll do everything we can to ensure we come back at Silverstone with a race-winning package in order for our title campaign to be back on track. On the plus side, we saw another exemplary performance throughout the weekend from Tim and Tristan and they were again the consummate professionals so everything’s looking good on three wheels.”
The Superstock series now takes a month’s break but the Sidecars will be back in action at Assen, Holland on September 21-22.
Pictures by Glynne Lewis
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