Luke Hopkins managed to finish 24^th and 25^th in the two Pirelli National Superstock 1000 races at Silverstone at the weekend.

This is his first season at this level and whilst the results were in line with his preseason expectations the team and rider were a little frustrated as they struggled with the bike set-up all weekend.

A special tyre was introduced for the 1.6 mile Silverstone National circuit last weekend and although not alone to suffer, the team toiled with limited success to get the set-up right for the bike.

Qualifying

The first free practice session Hopkins stayed out to get as many laps under his belt and begin to learn how the tyre worked.

He did the same during the second session but was unable to improve his lap time. The team tried several adjustments prior to qualifying on Saturday morning.

Hopkins put in more laps than any other rider and set a fastest time of 56.320. This put Hopkins 31^st on the starting grid.

Race One

Saturday afternoon and Hopkins was ready for the first of two races this weekend. He gained three places at the start of the race and was running in a large group of eleven riders in the early laps.

He found himself in a long battle with a couple of other riders who managed to frustrate his overtaking manouveres blocking him lap after lap.

With the chequered flag waved after 24 laps his distinctive black and yellow Kawasaki had progressed to 24^th position.

Race Two

With the grid based on lap times from race one Luke Hopkins was elevated to 26^th position for the start of race two on Sunday.

With the race underway Hopkins was running 25^th closely behind number 32 of Philp and 94 of Williams. He was under pressure from Neve behind and lost that place on lap seven.

Dani Saez then began to close in on Hopkins but he was able to respond and eventually went on to cross the line in 25^th place.

Luke Hopkins said, “Firstly, thank you to my sponsors HM Quickshifter, Scuff 2 New and Hollins Strategic Land. This weekend was tough for us. Although as I have previously said this year, I was hoping for top 25 finishes so we managed that in both races.

“Everyone had this special tyre for the weekend but we just couldn’t find a good set up for it. With all the right hand turns we were unable to get much grip and we were destroying it so quickly.

“We did the best we could this weekend. The next round is at Oulton Park from 18^th to 20^th September where we feel confident we can make progress.”

Images courtesy of Kerry Rawson