Superb Ride Into Eighth For Shand at Freezing Donington
Scotland's Les Shand put in a superb ride today at Donington Park in the second round of the National Superstock Championship, finishing in 8th place.
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 Scotland's Les Shand put in a superb ride today at Donington Park in the second round of the National Superstock Championship, finishing in 8th place. Riding the Barron Transport Honda, Shand fought his way through from a fifth row starting position to claim not only a solid top ten finish but also his first championship points of the season. Still getting to grips with his new Fireblade machine as well as getting back into his racing rhythym, the difficult weather conditions evened the playing field and allowed Les to prove his worth as a rider, something which stood out considerably. In what was only his second time out on the bike, Les was still learning the characteristics of the Honda during qualifying but he was able to log the 20th fastest time, far better than at the opening Brands Hatch round and proof of the steps forward the team were making. Such was the closeness of the field, Les was only 1.3 seconds off pole position and less than half a second away from a top ten start but found he was losing out due to the Honda having less revs than his previous Yamaha mount. Although the Honda was making good power, it was only revving to 12,400rpm and when combined with his own rustiness, it was losing him those vital fractions of a second. Nevertheless, he was pleased with the progress being made and felt sure he could make further strides in the race. With heavy rain falling and near freezing temperatures, the 12-lap Superstock race got underway in the gloom at 5pm and with a smooth getaway, Les was already up to 17th at the completion of the first lap. With a number of riders paying for their over-exuberance, he was up into 10th by just the fifth lap and was well into his racing stride so further gains looked possible. However, by this time he was in 'no mans land' as the spray being thrown up by the riders in front meant that the field was beginning to get stretched out and although safe in tenth he was a few seconds adrift of ninth. Showing the grit and determination we've become accustomed to, Les put in a string of consistent laps to overhaul Steve Brogan and looked like he'd climb even further until he eventually ran out of laps although with Daniel Hegarty falling by the wayside, Les eventually crossed the line in an excellent 8th place. Speaking after the race, a bitterly cold Les said: "To be fair, today's race was pretty ridiculous as the conditions were horrific. People talk about the Isle of Man TT Races being dangerous but that race today was as dangerous as anything I've ever done, I literally couldn't feel a thing for the entire race. I knew that I was braking for the corners but I only knew how much by how quickly I was slowing down, not by how hard I was pulling on the lever. I had a couple of major moments but that made me realise how far I could push and what the safety zone was." "It was quite a lonely race and apart from when I got Steve Brogan on the last lap, I think I only passed one other rider but maybe that's not such a bad thing considering how numb my hands were, it would have been pretty dicey getting involved in a tussle. We're making improvements all the time and if we can get a bit more power and revs out of the machine we'll certainly be a lot higher up the grid and closer to the front guys. Having qualified in 20th, I'm pretty pleased to have got up to 8th place and although a few folk came off, to get a result you've got to get to the finish and it's certainly a lot better than last time out at Brands. Like Brands, it's also good to still come away from the circuit with the lap record!
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