SOLIHULL racer Liam Delves was at Oulton Park for round two of the HEL Performance British Motostar Championship and came away with ninth and tenth-placed finishes.
Qualifying went well for the 17-year-old who secured a place on the second row for the start of the sprint race on Sunday.
But he didn’t get the best of starts and was swallowed up by the pack at the first turn and crossed the line to start lap two down in tenth position.
He then settled into his race and began to pick up places, working his way through to seventh place on lap eight of ten.
However, on the final lap he was pursued by Eugene McManus and Taz Taylor and on the drag to the flag they both pulled out of the slipstream and overtook him, leaving Delves to cross the finish line in ninth position.
“I struggled in race one and got a rubbish start again,” said Delves.
“I ended up in 15th position at turn two but managed to get my head down to make it back up to seventh but then got out dragged to the finish line to end up in ninth.”
Starting the feature race from the middle of the fourth row, Delves maintained his position on the opening lap, waiting for the riders to settle down before making his move forward.
On lap three he was up to ninth but was overtaken by American rider Brandon Paasch on lap five of 14.
He made a move on McManus to reclaim ninth place but when the back markers came into play on lap eight he was held up which allowed McManus to nip past him as they battled their way through the pack.
Delves maintained tenth place through the remainder of the laps to cross the finish line in that position and claim a further six championship points.
It brought his total to 25 and places him tenth in the rider standings after two rounds.
“I finished race two not where I wanted to be but I had a good pace and set my personal best time during the race,” said Delves.
“Unfortunately the leading group was too far ahead for me to make any inroads to the front.
“I will now be working hard over the summer break in preparation for the next round.
“I would like to thank my team for all the help and hard work over the weekend and all my supporters and sponsors.
“I am just sorry I could not have delivered a better set of results this time.”
Delves has an eight-week break until the next round which takes place at Knockhill between July 6-8.
