Wednesday, March 23 2011
It was an extremely positive start to the 2011 Road and Track Championship for new team Don Racing. Last years 125 champion Gavin Lupton was making his debut for the team and debuting on a bigger bike having taken the decision to move up a class.
It seemed that Gavin might not have been racing this year as only a month ago he had no secured ride. This changed however when Richard Wheat the MD of Don Controls based in Yeadon came to his rescue. Richard had seen the potential in Gavin last year and so was keen to assist by providing him with a competitive bike. The bike in question was the ex Pete Thompson’s Multi championship winning Honda CBR 400
Sunday the 20th March was the first round of the championship at Cadwell Park. It was soon evident in the practice and qualifying rounds that the Otley motorcycle racer was getting to grips with his Honda 400 early as he secured 4th place on the grid. Race 1 and Gavin was not as quick off the line as he would have hoped but his gritty determination soon kicked in and by the end of lap one he was back up into 4th place. Unfortunately, by this time the leading trio had pulled a gap that Gavin was not able to close throughout the race but on the last lap Race leader Mark Goodings from Doncaster lost the front end going into Mansfield which put Gavin into 3rd place.
Race 2 and Gav was determined to have a better start as he knew it would help him stay with the leaders and that’s exactly what he did. Through out the race he was battling hard for 2nd place with Josh Leaning on the RMKD Kawasaki. Meanwhile coming from behind was Goodings who was to take advantage of Gav and Josh slowing each other up. By the last lap when Gavin thought he had 2nd place in the bag, Goodings played his trump card and got past on the brakes going into Park corner. Although 2nd would have been great finishing 3rd was another fantastic result for Don Racing and Gavin.
The highlight of the day had to be when Gavin went out in the formula lites race which he wanted to use as extra practice and even shocked himself as well as the team when he took the win by over 8 seconds.
Gav says “Before the meeting, I had only managed to get a few laps of winter testing on the new bike due to a few mechanical issues. So I arrived at Cadwell with no expectations what so ever. I even played it down with the team telling them that I didn’t quite feel I could be up to race winning pace just yet. Luckily we managed to do a track day at the circuit the day before the race and by the end of the 1st session I was starting to enjoy riding the new bike. That then made me want to push on and get quicker throughout the day.
I am pleased that on my debut on the 400 I achieved two 3rd places demonstrating that Richard hasn’t wasted his money.
I am also extremely grateful once again to be receiving help from my other sponsors… NYRRSC, Sentinel, Silcock Leedham, and Bluefin. I’m confident that there is more to come from me and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
The team will be back out in force at the next round on 17th of April at Oliver’s Mount Scarborough for the Spring National Cup.
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