12:23pm Friday 3rd October 2008
By Roger Barker
Victor Cox, of VC/STP Motorsport from Trowbridge, riding a Yamaha R1 in the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 race at Silverstone at the weekend was hoping to add further championship points to his ever increasing tally.
The weather conditions for the penultimate race of the season were expected to be good and the first round of qualifying on Friday went better than planned. Cox set a time only 1.4 seconds slower than pole position man Jon Kirkham to end the day in ninth.
For Saturday's second round of qualifying Cox decided to change his rear shockers but apart from that felt the bike was in good shape so decided to leave everything else the same.
This provided to be a good decision. With a warm dry track and gaining more confidence with each lap, he roared over the line in eighth place and just under one second behind the leader. This meant on aggregate he would be starting the race on the second row in eighth position and a chance to once again score some championship points.
Sunday was once again warm and dry. With spirits high Cox took his place on the grid and when the lights went out his race started well.
Cox quickly realised that being at the front of the pack it was going to be a much harder race. During the race a rider crashed out just in front of him and this pushed Cox up to seventh.
On the last laps, with it all to lose, he made an incredible pass to end up crossing the finish line in a fantastic sixth place.
This added a further 10 points to his tally and has also consolidated his ninth position in the championship.
After the race Cox said he had not had too much of a problem with the bike and just waited until the opportunities presented themselves to pass the slower riders.
"This has been a great weekend for me and the team and I can't wait for the last race of the season at Brands Hatch in two weeks' time," he said.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk