High five as Aaron records best finish

Both draperRACING riders completed their final race of the season in the points at Brands Hatch this weekend.
Aaron Clarke.Aaron Clarke.
Aaron Clarke.

Aaron Clarke recorded a personal best result of fifth in the Superstock 600 class and Tommy Philp was 17th in the Sprint race and a fantastic 11the in the Feature race on Sunday.

After qualifying in 22nd place, Philp - from East Kirkby - began the 10-lap Sprint race from an eighth-row grid position and completed the first lap in 19th place.

He dropped back to 20th when Scott Deroue went past, but then elevated himself up to 17th after passing Freddie Pett and then Josh Daley at mid-race distance.

The three continued to argue over position for a couple of laps before Philp eased his draperRACING Yamaha away at the front to pull a small gap and continue on his way to the chequered flag to secure 17th with a 0.6 second advantage over Daley and Pett.

Starting the feature race on Sunday from the seventh row, Philp got away to a fantastic start and up into 13th place on lap one.

But just as he moved up to 11th the red flag stopped the race on lap six.

At the re-start it was a nine-lap sprint to the flag with Philp starting from the fourth row.

He became embroiled in a nine-rider battle for position and eventually crossed the finish line in 11th place to pick up five championship points and his personal best result of the season.

Not to be outdone by his teammate, Clarke also posted his personal best result of the season.

He qualified well to start the 12-lap affair from the fourth row.

He was running in 12th place when his race was also red flagged.

At the re-start, run over just six laps, Aaron was soon up to ninth place.

On the second lap he was sixth and on the penultimate lap he moved into to the top five.

Once ahead, Aaron powered his draperRACING Yamaha through the final lap to cross the finish line for fifth place to pick up 11 championship points.

He said: “I felt really good in that race and am so pleased to have brought a top-five result and 11 points back to the team today.

“My congratulations to Tommy as he too rode so well today and brought a good points finish home and his best result.

“Let’s hope we can both build on this next year and pick up where we left off.

“I have to thank my team for their hard work this weekend, my bike has been mint.

“Also a huge thank you to Paul Draper who put the draperRACING team together at the beginning of the season.

“I think we have done him proud today and he has been so supportive.”

The team plan to reconvene at Donington Park on April 2 for the opening round of the British Superbike championship.