Donington delight for Oxford Tag Triumph

After a two-year absence from the British Superbike calendar, the recently-rescued Donington Park circuit saw Oxford Tag Triumph enjoy its best weekend of the 2011 season with no less than four podium finishes and a massive points haul, once again confirming their standing as the UK’s number one Triumph team.
 
Based just ten miles down the road in Swadlincote, the team was keen to put on a good show at their home circuit. And from first practice it was clear that the local team meant business with 26-year-old former World Supermoto star, Christian Iddon dominating the early sessions in damp conditions and heading both free practice sessions.
 
But it was to be long-time Triumph ace, Paul Young that pulled out all the stops throughout a dry qualifying, ending the 35-minute session in second place on the grid with team mates Billy McConnell and Christian Iddon finishing on the second row in 6th and 8th place respectively.
 
Throughout the first race while not quite able to match the race pace of this season’s benchmark, Ben Wilson and Alistair Seeley, it became clear that the Daytona 675s of Youngy and Iddon were evenly matched as they diced throughout the 12-lap sprint race, matching each other lap-for-lap as, along with Jack Kennedy, they pulled away from the second group that included Billy McConnell, struggling with set-up and unable to run the lap times of the leaders.
 
After a tough but clean fight, it was Iddon that eventually got the upper hand, taking third from Youngy on the last lap for his second podium of the season while McConnell had to settle for seventh and some safe points to consolidate third in the championship chase.
 
Further down the field, 17-year-old Shaun Winfield rode hard to grab 18th overall to finish third in the Cup category and take his eighth podium of the year.
 
A chaotic race two saw rain showers, exploding Yamahas and two red flags. Throughout the first part of the race, it became clear that Iddon had found some more pace as he set about dicing with Seeley and Wilson.
 
The rain came down along with the first red flag on lap 9 with Seeley only just fending off Iddon with Youngy in a solid third place before crashing at McCleans just moments after the red flags came out.
 
With limited time to make repairs before the restart, Iddon and Youngy took their positions on the front row with McConnell just behind them on the second row.
 
With a seven-lap dash, the pace on the damp track was fierce with Seeley setting a new lap record on a drying line with Iddon right behind just a tenth of a second off Seeley’s new lap record and looking comfortable and ready to make a pass.
 
The red flags came out for the second time though, leaving a frustrated Iddon to have to wait another day for his first Supersport race win as he claimed a sensational second with Youngy just a second behind in third and McConnell in fifth as he closed in on championship leader, Wilson.
 
A fantastic weekend with the only sad news to report being that Shaun Winfield sustained an injury to his left foot in a high-speed crash during morning warm-up that looks likely to put him out of action for at least four weeks.
 
Rob Winfield, Oxford Tag Triumph Team Principal

“Another brilliant weekend for the team and it’s great to see that we’ve got three riders now capable of regularly getting on the podium with Christian proving his third at Knockhill was no fluke and Youngy once again showing both speed and consistency. Billy didn’t have such a great weekend but he’s still in third in the championship, putting in his usual 100% commitment and I really can’t ask for any more than that.
 Shaun was riding well and scored another podium in Cup so it’s a real blow for him to have sustained an injury during warm-up but it’s all part of the learning curve and he’s improving and learning all the while. I’d just like to thank my team for all their hard work and of course to all the team partners and sponsors who have supported us and helped us to achieve such fantastic results.”