New Zealand’s Damon Rees continues to impress in the Superstock 1000 class of the British Superbike Championships.
The man from Whakatane produced two stand-out rides at round one of the series two weeks ago and was again on form at round two at the weekend.
He finished second and third in the two races at round one at Donington Park two weeks ago, ending the weekend in front of established riders such as former Moto 3 World Champion Danny Kent and 16-time TT winner Ian Hutchinson.
Commenting after his round one success Rees said: “I’m feeling really good going into the weekend, of course (my performance at) round one was a fantastic start, but I’m staying level-headed as the Superstock 1000 field is super competitive!”
The first free practice session at round two at Snetterton at the weekend took place in dry but very windy conditions, Rees setting a lap time of 1.55.404 which put him in 22nd position, just 3.067s off the top spot.
“FP1 was definitely a shake-down session, getting the set-up right on our Carl Cox Motorsport supported Astro JJR Racing BMW S1000rr, I just wasn’t firing as well as I would have hoped, and I felt like my track knowledge was lacking.”
Session two was held later in the day and, once Rees got more familiar with the race track and his bike, he improved his lap time by a massive 2.31s. Rees finished the second session with a lap time of 1.53.094, which put him in 15th position, just 1.258 seconds off the quickest time of the day which was set by Davey Todd.
The qualifying session for the British National Superstock 1000 class took place Saturday afternoon under blue skies.
With just one race for the class at Snetterton, it was important for Rees to get a good starting position for Sunday’s race. Rees would eventually qualify 1.244 seconds off the pole time set by Matt Truelove and would start alongside Kent and joint British Superstock 1000 Championship leader Tom Neave in 9th position on the grid.
The 12-lap British Superstock 1000 race got underway at Snetterton under cloudy skies. Rees got off to a good start, at the end of the opening lap Rees had managed to hold onto his starting position of 9th and was just 2.671 seconds from the lead.
By the end of lap two, a gap had opened up to 8th placed Kent. Sensing that Kent was pulling away, Rees got into a good rhythm and set his fastest lap of the race and of the weekend.
By lap nine Rees had dropped back to 10th position and was in a three-way battle for eighth. By lap 11, Rees had consolidated his tenth position and by the end of the race was 7.090 seconds ahead of 11th placed Joe Collier and 6.295 seconds off the eventual race winner and championship leader Neave.
“I definitely had a solid race, getting into a good rhythm in the opening laps – even posting the fastest lap-time momentarily with a 1.50.363,” said Rees.
“I wasn’t able to make a decent charge as I would have hoped, as I hadn’t gone as fast as I did in the race all weekend, therefore I was limited by our suspension set-up.
“Half-way through the race, I was having some big front-end moments, so I decided to roll-off and settle for a very decent 10th place. I’m really happy with my continuous progression this weekend, and I bagged some valuable points.”
After three races, Rees sits third overall in the British Superstock 1000 Championship on 42pts, just 19 points behind championship leader Neave.
Round three of the British Superstock 1000 Championship will take place at the iconic Silverstone Circuit over the weekend of September 5-6, where they will contest two 24-lap races.
Words by Michael Wincott
Photo supplied
Find BikesportNZ.com on FACEBOOK here
