It was a dramatic weekend at Donington Park for the Appleyard Macadam Yamaha team as Bradley Perie took a hard fought win and a crash but still took the Quattro Group Supersport series lead.

Having shown his pace for the first time in pre-season tests at Donington Park, Brad came into the weekend in a confident mood. He was 0.177 behind the fastest time in free practice and seemed settled for a strong qualifying session, however events soon overtook him. Just as Brad pitted for a new tyre and prepared to start clicking some fast laps; the red flag came out, leaving him back on row three in ninth position. Rhys set about his work in practice placing 12th in qualifying, exactly a second off of pole.

Saturday’s Sprint Race was held over 20 laps in dry conditions with Brad and Rhys lined up on rows three and four respectively. Brad moved past riders over the first few laps and caught the main lead group. Then in the final few laps he made some fantastic passes culminating in a nail-biting final corner move on title rival Jack Kennedy to take the win and retake the series lead! It was a frustrating, short race for Rhys as a pulled fuel line meant he never made it round to the grid.

The longer 24 lap Feature Race saw Rhys improve his grid position to seventh, still on Row 3, whilst Rhys had to start from the final Row (11!) as he hadn’t logged a race lap the previous day. The outing followed a similar path with Brad catching the leading group, albeit helped with a pace car intervention, before colliding with Jack Kennedy, resulting in them both ending up in the gravel. Rhys had a fantastic race battling from last on the grid to fifth in class, only to be taken out on the final lap, ending the weekend ‘pointless’.

Brad now leads the series by a single point from Jack Kennedy, whilst the team have a very short but busy turnaround before Cadwell Park in just five days time!

Team Owner Robin Appleyard said, “Brad had an excellent ride yesterday and looked on course to do the same today once he caught the lead group. I think he got a bit giddy right at the end there to be honest with the crash. Rhys had a really strong ride from 32nd up to his best result but unfortunately crashed out also, luckily neither hurt themselves.
We have two young riders, mistakes are going to happen and we’ve just got to learn from them and support them.”

Bradley Perie said, “Obviously Saturday’s win was amazing and I think we had the pace to do the same today. When I went to overtake Jack he was also lining up Lee Johnston and the three bikes all met in the middle. In hindsight I misjudged it slightly and I’ve apologised to the riders and teams involved. We’ve had great pace and that’s what I take from the weekend.”

It was a dramatic weekend at Donington Park for the Appleyard Macadam Yamaha team as Bradley Perie took a hard fought win and a crash but still took the Quattro Group Supersport series lead.

Having shown his pace for the first time in pre-season tests at Donington Park, Brad came into the weekend in a confident mood. He was 0.177 behind the fastest time in free practice and seemed settled for a strong qualifying session, however events soon overtook him. Just as Brad pitted for a new tyre and prepared to start clicking some fast laps; the red flag came out, leaving him back on row three in ninth position. Rhys set about his work in practice placing 12th in qualifying, exactly a second off of pole.

Saturday’s Sprint Race was held over 20 laps in dry conditions with Brad and Rhys lined up on rows three and four respectively. Brad moved past riders over the first few laps and caught the main lead group. Then in the final few laps he made some fantastic passes culminating in a nail-biting final corner move on title rival Jack Kennedy to take the win and retake the series lead! It was a frustrating, short race for Rhys as a pulled fuel line meant he never made it round to the grid.

The longer 24 lap Feature Race saw Rhys improve his grid position to seventh, still on Row 3, whilst Rhys had to start from the final Row (11!) as he hadn’t logged a race lap the previous day. The outing followed a similar path with Brad catching the leading group, albeit helped with a pace car intervention, before colliding with Jack Kennedy, resulting in them both ending up in the gravel. Rhys had a fantastic race battling from last on the grid to fifth in class, only to be taken out on the final lap, ending the weekend ‘pointless’.

Brad now leads the series by a single point from Jack Kennedy, whilst the team have a very short but busy turnaround before Cadwell Park in just five days time!

Team Owner Robin Appleyard said, “Brad had an excellent ride yesterday and looked on course to do the same today once he caught the lead group. I think he got a bit giddy right at the end there to be honest with the crash. Rhys had a really strong ride from 32nd up to his best result but unfortunately crashed out also, luckily neither hurt themselves.
We have two young riders, mistakes are going to happen and we’ve just got to learn from them and support them.”

Bradley Perie said, “Obviously Saturday’s win was amazing and I think we had the pace to do the same today. When I went to overtake Jack he was also lining up Lee Johnston and the three bikes all met in the middle. In hindsight I misjudged it slightly and I’ve apologised to the riders and teams involved. We’ve had great pace and that’s what I take from the weekend.”

Rhys Irwin added, “I’ve obviously lost loads of track time this weekend so I was really happy to be making such progress all the way through in the last race, until the very end when I got taken out… which is mega frustrating.”