Tight at the top as Tom Booth-Amos defends slender British Motostar Championship lead
Tom Booth-Amos will take a slender eight-point advantage into the next round of the British Motostar Championship after securing another win and a second place during a thrilling meeting at Thruxton.
A crash and a penalty may have elevated the 21-year-old up a place but he was more than happy to take another victory during the opening race.
Qualifying threw up a surprise with Tom Carne taking pole ahead of Ed Rendell with Newport’s Booth-Amos in third, Eugene McManus fourth and his team-mate Jake Archer on row two for Saturday afternoon’s race.
Booth-Amos, Archer, Rendell and McManus exchanged positions throughout the 10-lap race.
McManus crossed the line first closely followed by Booth-Amos and Archer but the victor was penalised for passing under a yellow flag, which meant both were handed higher finishing positions.
Race two was reduced to 11 laps after an earlier tragic incident in the National Superstock 1000 race but when the flag was dropped Archer, McManus, Booth-Amos, Rendell and Richard Kerr were all involved in a five-way battle.
McManus made a mistake losing the front end, leaving Archer and Booth-Amos clear of Rendell in third.
Booth-Amos said: “Great win by Jake, he pulled a gap and I just couldn’t close him down after getting involved with Eugene and Ed.
“I’m still leading the championship but it’s still all to play for, eight points is nothing.
“I need to focus on Cadwell now and look to pick up another double win”
Highley’s Louis Dawson swapped his usual Ducati 898 for a Yamaha R6 and entered the British Superstock 600 round.
But with little time on the bike the meeting was one to forget for the 21-year-old as he finished in the middle of the pack.
“We had such a disappointing round,” he said. “As I hadn’t ridden the R6 since February there was a lot of set-up to do so the two free test sessions were helpful for that.
"But we misjudged the qualifying session weather-wise and pulled in early in the session to wait for the rain to ease but unfortunately it got worse as I was sat in pit lane. So starting at the back of the grid led to a very disappointing mid-field finish.”
The British Superbike series now moves to Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire, August 18-20.
