Canterbury’s Tom Ward was back on the podium in the latest round of the Pirelli National Superstock championship last weekend at Silverstone.
This time the Superstock were part of the support package for the MotoGP, and Tom finished race one in sixth before taking third in the second race on Sunday afternoon.
Giving his thoughts on another impressive weekend, Ward said: “Amazing weekend at Silverstone GP with MotoGP, it was two frustrating races after the start to the weekend but I am happy to come away with a third.
“It’s such a pleasure to ride around the GP circuit and I was really pleased to top FP1 bearing in mind the FHO guys had done a track day there a month before!
“It’s always hard to get up to speed when you haven’t ridden there for so many years, so it was great to hit the ground running!I didn’t get clean lap on the new tyre in Qualifying but was happy to start P2 just 0.098 behind Josh (Brookes) with a 2:05.8.
“Unfortunately in race one a fuse broke on lap two and my dash cut out which meant I lost most of my electronic aids like Traction control, engine brake control, quick shifter etc. not sure if it was related but the clutch also started to slip from lap four.
“I was thinking of pulling in as the bike was obviously difficult to ride but I stayed out to narrowly miss fifth place. Really annoying as I felt really confident about this race!We put a new clutch in over night and some new springs thanks to IWR racing and repaired the electronic issue, this was quickly resolved thanks to Bob Collins as he’d had this issue before (7.5amp fuse had cracked). We had no warm up so I only had time to bed the clutch in on the out lap and the race start was terrible
“I went back to around 11th into Turn one, I slowly made my way back up the field and was into P2 with two laps to go, by this point Brookes had made a gap for first place, on the final two laps it was carnage with everyone overtaking each other but quite an enjoyable scrap with Hickman, Talbot, Todd and Swann! Another trophy to the collection which is nice.
“I won’t be competing in the next three races of BSB due to previous commitments but I wish everyone well for the coming races it’s been great fun to be able to jump back into BSB and run up the front again, I still feel capable of achieving more given the right opportunity but for now I’m really enjoying riding and being in the moment with it all
“I am super grateful to Armada Marine Cables and Sam Cox Racing for this opportunity it really is a little dream team! Thank you to everyone involved from team sponsors to personal Sponsors, family and friends I’ve really felt a great amount of support since being back racing in the UK.”