Beverley’s James Westmoreland competed in round ten of the Dickies British Supersport championship.
Westmoreland onboard Team Traction Control’s Yamaha YZF R6 left it late during qualifying to place the Yamaha in pole position with a time of 1min 31secs only .47sec ahead of championship rival Tarran MacKenzie who qualified fourth.
As the ten lap sprint race got underway ‘Westy’ had a reasonable start but was passed by David Allingham into the first bend. At the Old Hairpin Bradley Ray went underneath him relegating him to third.
As he rounded the final bend during lap two he was pushed wide onto the grass and rejoined in ninth place. He was now playing catch up to reduce the damage in the championship standings and was pushing hard to catch those in front.
By lap three he was up into eighth place due to the retirement of Benjamin Currie. Passing Luke Jones on lap four and the demise of team mate Joe Francis as he lost the front end into the final bend saw ‘Westy’ now in sixth place.
Lap six saw him move up again as he passed Glenn Irwin for fifth place. The next few laps were then spent closing down the leading pack and closing down David Allingham managed to pass him on the final lap of the final bend by going the long way around the outside to take fourth spot with MacKenzie finishing second and now taking the championship lead. ‘Westy’ also set the fastest lap of the race a 1min 31.6sec.
The feature race saw him again sitting in pole position, and as the lights went green for the eighteen lap race he lost places off the start and was soon down in fourth. On lap three he passed David Allingham for third and remained there until lap six when Allingham briefly regained the place.
‘Westy’ retook the place from Allingham a lap later and remained in third spot until lap eleven when he passsed Tarran MacKenzie to take second place. For the remaining seven laps he was continually swapping places with MacKenzie with both riders being pushed to the limit.
The final lap saw MacKenzie slide past ‘Westy’ to claim second place relegating ‘Westy’ down to third.
Although gaining a podium place MacKenzie now leads the championship standings by eight points with two rounds and four races to go.
He will be in action again on 30 September to 2 October around the Assen circuit with the final round being held around the Brands Hatch GP circuit on 14th-16th Oct.
Picture: David Holland
