Up and down weekend for Hipwell at Silverstone as he takes 19th and 16th in Supersport races

Motorcycling

Harworth’s Dean Hipwell had two top 20 places in an up and down weekend at Silverstone.

The took a 19th and a 16th place finish, in the penultimate round of the British Supersport Championship.

Friday morning’s first free practice session was a washout with the circuit covered with rain.

The afternoon session saw Hipwell in a fast time on the sixth lap when the engine cut out.

Further inspection unbeiled no more than a slightly loose wire, and the engine tested with no problems.

Saturday morning’s qualifying saw Hipwell put the Globalnet Telecoms Triumph on the grid in 19th for the afternoon’s sprint race.

He got away to a reasonable start in the race but was overtaken by the Yamaha of Tommy Dale.

Lap two saw him pushed back when Glenn Irwin overtook then on lap four Luke Jones got past. The fifth lap saw him run wide on one of the corners allowing a number of riders to get through. On lap seven Hipwell managed to get past Bjorn Estment and with riders crashing out he brought the bike home in 19th.

His fastest lap of the race would see him start from 21st on the grid for Sunday’s feature race.

But he made up four places on the opening lap, a crash put him 16th and despite dropping back, he regained the places to take the flag in 16th.

The CDH Team were reasonably happy with the results especially as in the feature race Hipwell had lapped quicker than over the previous two days.