Buxton racer Chris Kent moves up in standings

Following the first round at Brands Hatch in March, Kent lay in fifth place in the championship and arrived hoping to improve.

And he did just that by moving up to third place in the championship standings with two more rounds to go.

The Buxton man qualified in fifth place for Race 1 and slotted into fifth for the first laps. Eventually he was able to move up one position to finish in fourth place.

Race 2 was held over to the Sunday morning in a warm air temperature, which meant that much of the track was dry so tyre selection became very important.

Most of the racers went with the safe option of the heavily treaded wet weather tyres whilst Kent chose slicks.

A superb start gave Kent the lead but a tentative approach to the Park corner gave two of his rivals, on ‘wets’, the opportunity to get past. Another lap in third place and fighting off another rider allowed the local man to gauge the track conditions better so he was able to open a gap to the riders behind, but was unable to close the two leaders down and finished on the podium in third place.

A front row start, courtesy of the thirrd fastest lap time in the previous race, gave Kent the opportunity to once again lead Race 3 for the first two laps.

With a totally dry track and everyone now on slick tyres, the racing was much closer, with four riders swapping places at the front.

Kent lost the lead several times but was able to retake it each time until a mistake at the chicane gave the others a lead too large for him to close meaning another fourth place finish.

The last race of the weekend saw Kent sit in fifth place for the first two laps, but he then started picking off the places in front until he took the lead.

Typically close racing meant it was anybody’s race to win. Some suspension tweaks meant that Kent was able to fight harder with overtakes at Coppice, a flat out in top gear corner, and several, out-braking moves downhill into the Mansfield corner.

The last lap saw him in a close second place but back-markers in the final few corners scuppered his chances of taking the victory.