Disappointing week for the draper duo

But a change of fortune is anticipated for the next round at Cadwell Park where East Kirkby’s Tommy Philp and teammate Aaron Clarke, from Kirton, have done well in the past.

Philp completed his qualifying in 21st place and started Saturday’s 12-lap sprint race from the seventh row.

He was a little unlucky as just as he went out on a new tyre to post a fast lap the weather decided to throw some rain at him so he was unable to make the most of new rubber.

Starting the Sprint race from the seventh row, Philp made a good start and was up to 19th on the opening lap, but the race was red flagged because another bike dropped oil on the track.

But when the race re-started, Philp only got as far as the first corner when he was forced to pull off the track to retire.

Because of the non finish, Philp was placed on row eight for the start of the Feature race on Sunday, and faced an almost impossible task of fighting his way through the back markers and into a point-scoring position.

He gave it his best shot and was running in 16th place for a while mid-race, but after struggling with set-up throughout the weekend on the very abrasive tarmac at the Hampshire circuit, tyre wear also came into play, causing him to slow and he crossed the finish line in 18th place just three places away from the points.

Meanwhile, qualifying in the Superstock 600 race was a fiasco as the riders only completed four laps before the rain began to fall.

Although Clarke returned to the pits for a change to wet tyres, the session was soon red flagged and he was unable to improve his position and started the race on Sunday morning from the eighth row.

Clarke got away to a fantastic start from 23rd place and was up to 17th on the first lap.

He overtook James Nagy on lap two but on lap four the course car came on to the track to enable the recovery of a fallen rider which halted his progress.

Once the car left the track, Clarke became embroiled in a battle for position with Cameron Lee which continued throughout the remainder of the race.

Clarke held off a late challenge from Lee on the final lap and held his position to clinch 16th at the flag.

But neither rider had noticed the flag just as the course car came onto the track and were penalised for overtaking under the course car flag, and they had their finishing positions reduced by one place which gave Clarke 17th position. The next round is on August 20.