IT WAS the perfect celebration for teenager Liam Delves who secured a fourth and third place finish on his 16th birthday in his two races in round five of the Motostar British Moto 3 standard class at Thruxton.
The Smiths Wood Sports college student, who turned 16 last Friday, was hoping for two positive results over the weekend and he was not to be denied in the standard class, which runs within the main Moto3 GP class with each set of riders competing for their own points.
Delves qualified in fifth place in his class and 20th overall for the start of the short sprint race on Saturday.
During the race he was dicing with Mark Clayton for third place and narrowly missed out on the podium position by a small margin to take fourth at the flag – 17th overall.
Starting Sunday’s feature race from the 17th row of the mixed grid of riders, Delves settled into fifth place (24th overall) for the first four laps before moving up two places into third (16th overall) after passing Storm Stacey and Asher Durham on lap five.
One lap later he overtook Mark Clayton and moved into second place which he held for three laps before Clayton demoted him back down to third (13th overall).
Although he was circulating just a tenth of a second behind Clayton, Delves was unable to make a pass and crossed the finish line for his first podium finish of the current campaign.
“It’s been a great birthday weekend for me here at Thruxton,” said Delves. “I had some great battles in race two and managed to secure a third place podium.
“I would like to thank everyone at Banks Racing for giving me a great bike and for all their hard work this weekend, also all my loyal sponsors and everyone that helps, supports and follows me. I have really enjoyed this weekend and come away with two good results.”
This fine set of results put Delves up to seventh in the overall standings on 99 points with the next round being at Brands Hatch over the weekend of August 5-7.
