BURNS FINISHES IN TOP 6, AGAIN!

The Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship does not accompany the British Superbike Championship to Assen, consequently each year they have the opportunity to showcase the talents of the series riders at a major event in the UK, this year it was as a support race to the Hertz British Grand Prix MotoGP. 

Joe Burns at Silverstone in his Held leathers! Photo: Jon Jessop Photography

 Held wearer Joe arrived at Silverstone without his race engineer, who had broken his wrist at Cadwell Park the previous weekend, consequently the team was a man down. However Joe was confident that a good result could still be achieved. 

Free practice on Friday was encouraging, when the chequered flag came out Joe had set 4th quickest time, 1.8 seconds off pole, qualifying 1 took place later the same day and once again he was in 4th place, but the gap had closed to 1.254, so a step in the right direction had been made with the adjustments to the bike. 

Qualifying 2 ran on Saturday and Joe once again finished in 4th place with a significant closing of the gap to pole, 0.783 separated him from Danny Buchan, but more importantly he was only 0.042 behind Lee Jackson in 3rd place, it looked like a podium possibility for the race. 

The race took place late Sunday afternoon, and Joe had his best start of the season so far, by turn 1 he was in 3rd place and chasing the leaders hard, and maybe took a little too much out of his rear tyre, consequently he dropped to 5th place which he held until lap 8 when a safety car period was called, this allowed the pack to close up, and shortly after the restart Joe was passed by Hudson Kennagh, dropping him to 6th position, however it was a close finish with 4th, 5th and 6th crossing the line all within 0.29 seconds. 

After the race Joe said, “I am disappointed to have finished in 6th place, my qualifying pace was improving all through the weekend, my start was good and holding 3rd place for 4 laps boosted my confidence, but maybe the rear tyre was overworked and I lost a couple of places. Superstock 1000 is very close and at the front of the grid a tenth of a second is a huge amount of time, however I am taking away a lot of positives from this race meeting, and I am pleased to move into 8th place in the Championship table.” 
 
Joe Burns wears Held leathers. See more Held here