On Saturday the J&S Aprilia Superteens faced their final day of racing and Champion Frazer Rogers sported the #1 plate on an all-black Aprilia as the final positions were to be decided.
On a cold and windy day, Rogers looked a little more laid back than usual and even though he was involved in all of the front end battles, it was 12 year old Wayne Ryan that would storm to victory in race one and a maiden victory for Scotland’s Matt Paulo as he rode on the Aprilia for the final time, taking Seventh away from George Martindale in the Championship in the process.
With Andy Read looking as solid as ever, finishing his campaign with a second and a fourth, Rogers ended the year with a fourth and third, a massive 127 points clear of eventual runner up and Aprilia rider of the Saturday in Bruce Winfield.
His second and third guaranteed him of second spot after Adam Shelton’s uncharacteristic 13th place finish in race one, eased the pressure from Winfield’s shoulders.
Qualifying was again a two-stage session with the best lap time achieved being the grid slot. Being only a single day’s event with two races, second and third spot in the championship between JDF-MOTORPOINT rider Bruce Winfield and Adam Shelton was still to be decided, bother riders however could not be caught by 4th placed rider Josh Harland.
Bruce and John discussed the strategy for session 1 Whilst it was essential Bruce qualified on the front row, the second session would be the decider after the track was checked out.
Donington is notorious for being slippy early in the morning particularly at this time of the year. In effect session 1 was a sighting session or intelligence gathering exercise.
Putting in a time in the ’29s Bruce was in P8 after sesion 1. The sun had warmed the track a bit, therefore Bruce went for Pole. By lap 6 of the 12 lap session Bruce was in control and put in the best lap of 1.26599 to secure his second pole of the series.
Race 1: the race was always going to be a cracker. Bruce was running from P1 to P5; was he testing the field? The top five were wheel to wheel, two laps from home Bruce had worked his way to the front and managed to pull a 20 metre lead, could he hang on? Last lap entering the chicane before the start and finish Bruce got tangled up with Wayne Ryan leaving a gap for Andy Reid to get through, followed by Wayne!
Wayne Ryan took the win from Andy Reid, Bruce, Fraser Rogers in 4th place, George Martindale rode well for 5th, Matthew Paulo 6th, and Lee Jackson 7th. Only 2.7 seconds covering the 7 riders!
We were looking forward to having to slug it out with Adam for second spot in the championship, howevr Adam uncharacteristically finished in 13th place, this gave JDF-Motorpoint second place overall in the J&S Superteen Challenge!
Race 2: As the top three positions in the championship had been decided, the pressure was off Bruce in particular. The last race was also a very good race and came down to Bruce and Matthew Paulo, Bruce was getting passed on the back end of the circuit, but by the final corner he was back in the lead. This went on for most of the race. racing for the flag Matthew pipping Bruce on the line by just 0.193 of a second to take his first win of the series, with Fraser Rogers in third spot 0.340 behind the race winner.
A great finish to a very good year. A number of these young riders will surely represent their Country in the years to come.
JDF Racing would like to thank all who involved with running a well organised championship:
- Ian and Myra Newton of IN Competition as Superteen series organiser in their 11th year of managing Challenge;
- Dave and Bernadette Stewart of ThundersportGB as ground-breaking promoters;
- Paul Walker of Aprilia UK
- Lloyd Lifestyle for supplying the riders with all their riding gear; a fantastic deal!
- J&S Clothing as series sponsors;
- Dunlop Tyres for supplying tyres to the top three overall over a race week-end;
- Shell Lubricants for supplying oil to the top three overall over a race week-end;
- Motorpoint and Magnum Motorsport for providing support to JDF Racing.
