Donington Park Circuit was the venue for the penultimate round of the Dunlop Aprilia Superteens Championship. This was the circuit Rory had made his Superteen debut at 11 months previous, when he became the youngest rider in it’s 18 year history to take a victory … this was a special place for Rory to come back to!
Saturday Qualifying: Although the track temperature was low with lack of grip in places, qualifying went well. Rory went out and put some decent laps together. Aware of the track temperature he worked heat into the tyres and finished the session in third. Rory said: “The bike was struggling to rev out and rather than come in I decided to stay out and compensate top speed for corner speed, the bike was moving about a bit too”. With an uncommon carburation fault found and rectified and a slight tweek on the suspension settings Rory was ready for Race 1.
Saturday Race 1: With Rory starting third on the grid he made a good start and by turn 1 he was in the lead and set about making an early break. The track temperature had increased by now and the bike was handling well, Rory controlled the race from the front finishing in first place, 5.4 seconds ahead of second place and so extending his championship lead further.
Saturday Race 2: Again starting from third on the grid, Rory pushed hard to open a gap in the first couple of laps and by lap three he had a 3 second lead. Over the loud speaker system we could hear the commentators quickly tallying up the points between Rory and Georgina, who was currently sitting in 3rd place. If they were to finish in their current positions Rory would become the champion. with four laps to go Georgina valiantly fought back taking over 2 seconds out of the rider in front however it wasn’t enough as Rory powered over the line 9.6 seconds ahead of the second place rider closely followed by Georgina 1.2 sec behind. This win gave Rory not only his second victory of the day but sealed his unassailable lead in the championship and secured him the title of 2014 Dunlop Aprilia Superteens Champion …….. all on his 13th birthday!
Rory was on pole position for the two Sunday races having set the fastest time during Races 1 and 2 the previous day which were only 0.1 off the existing lap record.
Sunday Race 1: Rory’s approach to Race 1 was the same as any other, to do his very best and put some fast laps in … he did just that and by lap three had smashed the existing lap record by 0.6 seconds. Each of his subsequent laps were also consistently under the old lap record and he came over the line an impressive 11.9 seconds ahead of second place.
Rory said “It’s been an amazing experience this year and it feels really good to win the championship. We approached this weekend the same as all the others, not really thinking about the championship but just looking to do our very best in every race. To take the title with three wins and a new lap record is an amazing result and I want to thank everyone who has helped me this season for all their support.”