2nd Podium of 2013 for Held wearing racer Joe Burns

Following the most horrendous rain and wind on Friday, the weekend weather changed completely and Donington Park enjoyed warm and sunny conditions for the Saturday and Sunday of the World Superbike meeting. 

Held wearer Joe Burns - National Superstock 1000 2nd place at the WSBK event

On Friday Joe sat out the free practice sessions as the weather was just crazy, there was a brief respite for about 6 laps of the qualifying 1, and Joe took advantage of the only 5 dry laps to set the second fastest time of the day. 

The 40 riders entered for the race took to the track on Saturday for the 2nd qualifying session, making the ‘traffic’ quite difficult, despite two stops at the pits during the session, Joe just could not get a clear lap, and he was a little disappointed to only qualify 3rd. But this secured a front row of the 3 by 3 grid, a good place to be. 

From the start of the race Joe took second place behind Steve Brogan, however with an excellent move Joe took the lead, and a lap later Adam Jenkinson moved up to second, the leading trio then lapped consistently with less than 1 second covering all three of them. 

A small mistake by Joe coming into the esses was pounced on by Jenkinson, and Joe was now second, a position he held to the end of the race, clearly the leading three were in a class of their own, the gap between first and second across the finish line being just 0.340 of second. 

After the race Joe said, ‘I did not get the start I wanted, but getting into second place on the entry to Redgate was good, I managed to take the lead on lap 3, but made a mistake and fell back to second, a good race and I am very happy with the result, especially as I am now second in the championship!’ 

For more information on Held Rider Equipment in the UK please visit www.held-uk.co.uk