Sy Langford the 23-year-old motorcycle racer from Wickford in Essex riding a Yamaha R1qualified in 36th position on his last outing held at Brands Hatch on the Grand Prix Circuit.
He maintained steady times throughout the two sessions and this put him on the 9th row of the grid for The Metzeler Superstock 1000 Championship which is run as a support race to The British Superbike Series now sponsored by mce insurance.
Race 7 on Sunday saw Langford get off to a good start and by the end of lap 1 was running in 25th position just behind ex Superbike rider Scott Smart. As the race gained pace he was passed by several faster riders and on lap 2 he was demoted to 28th, but he fought back and by the next lap had regained a place into 27th at which point the race was stopped due to an incident.
He restarted 27th on the grid from row 7, but unfortunately this time his start was not so good and he lost his advantage. At the end of lap 4 he was in 29th, a position he maintained until lap 6 when he went wide at Surtees and lost two further places. He was steadily making up ground on the riders ahead until on lap 7 two more riders went out and this elevated him to his finishing position of 29th.
"I felt as though I was riding a lot better" said Sy after the meeting "We made some changes to the suspension settings during qualifying and it seemed to sort out the handling problems I have had all season. I could put the bike into the corners and feel it was staying on line so I was more confident in pushing a little harder. Unfortunately it didn't work quite so well at Surtees, but that was down to me, which is unfortunate because I could have had one of my best finishes ever in this series on my home circuit.
Next round is at Cadwell Park one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar, but also one of my favourites, so with the advances we've made this weekend I'm looking forward to doing well there"
Words & Pix Eric O'Brien.