Racing Updates from Brands Hatch and Schleizer Dreieck

Monday, August 4, 2008

A double podium for Triumph’s Arne Tode saw him retain his lead in the German IDM Supersport championship this weekend.

Starting from pole position at the Schleizer Dreieck circuit, the G-LAB Racing rider scored two second place finishes behind Yamaha rider Vladimir Ivanov. Tode now goes into the final two race weekends with a 39 point advantage in the championship, with Ivanov as his closest challenger.

The world championship took place at the Brands Hatch in the UK, with local wild-card Rob Frost the best of the Triumphs with an impressive ninth place on his privately-entered Daytona.

The race was twice red flagged, firstly due to rain fall and finally after a horrific crash involving former Triumph rider Craig Jones, who was airlifted to hospital after highsiding out of the battle for the lead.

British rider Steve Plater made his debut for the Triumph Italia BE1 squad, qualifying and finishing a creditable 11th place in his first outing on the triple. It was a less fortunate weekend for his team-mate Mark Aitchison, who turned up at Brands with a fever and ended Friday qualifying with an injured knee after a high speed crash. He battled on bravely but crashed out of the race while outside the points.

With Garry McCoy still injured following a crash at Brno, Triumph-SC enlisted the services of Polish rider Pawel Szkopek, who finished the aggregate race just outside the points in 18th place.

Frost’s seven championship points sees Triumph retain third in the manufacturer’s championship, ahead of Suzuki and Kawasaki.

The championship now takes a one month break before the next round, held at Leicestershire’s Donington Park circuit.