Drayton Enjoyed Endurance Race Victory but Technical Issues Hamper Superstock Race at Donington Park

Images: Ian Hopgood Photography

On the 21st May Drayton was part of the SorryMate.com Endurance Team that took victory at Donington Park in the National 600 class.

Having only qualified 30th on the grid for the 6 hour endurance race Drayton and his team mates went on to finish the race in fifth position overall , more importantly first in their class taking maximum points at this round.

The event was made that much more difficult when torrential rain caused the race to be halted and delayed for nearly two hours before eventually finishing at nearly eight O’clock in the evening.

This weekend Drayton was again racing at Donington Park but in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 championship with the Moto Breakers Racing Team. Last time out at Oulton Park he finished in a fantastic seventh position. Buoyed by the endurance race Dan Drayton was hoping for another positive result. However, a number of technical issues meant that he was hampered throughout the weekend.

The Scunthorpe racer set a best lap time of 1:38.610 in free practice, but was struggling with a couple of problems with the bike. His time left him down in 24th position.

With only an hour and a half between free practice and qualifying the opportunity to rectify the problems was limited.

Qualifying took place in very windy conditions just one and a half hours after free practice. Drayton set about working on reducing his lap time, but it soon became apparent that there was still an issue with the bike. Drayton was forced to pull in to the pits after just seven laps. Unable to set a faster time he was forced to start the race on Sunday from 27th place on the grid.

Sunday was race day. Unfortunately, there was no warm up to iron out changes, so it was straight down to the race. Drayton got bogged down at the start and dropped to 30th position. Despite the early disappointment Drayton fought hard and battled back to cross the finish line in 20th place. A great recovery after the problems he had had but it wasn’t the result Drayton was expecting this weekend.

Dan Drayton said, “I’m happy that I managed to fight back and finish 20th after where I qualified. However, the weekend could have been much more positive if we hadn’t suffered with technical issues. These things happen in racing so I’m now looking forward to Knockhill on the weekend of the 16 to 18th June. Thank you to all my sponsors.”

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