Ulster man John Simpson raced to second place aboard his Trickbits T3 Racing Triumph at round eight of the Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship at Brands Hatch in Kent.

He put his machine on pole position with a superb lap time of 1min 30.776secs, the only rider to get into the 1min 30s. His nearest rival was Danny Buchan who was just 0.7secs off his time so it was a close run qualifying.

Off the line Simpson slotted into fourth place and started to work his way forward. By lap four he was into podium contention taking third place just as the Safety Car was deployed due to an incident on track.

When the Safety Car pulled in Simpson got stuck back into the race promoting himself to second place. He tailed race leader Buchan for five laps before overhauling him for the lead. Unfortunately for Simpson the red flag came out due to fluid on track, the race result was taken back a lap and he was relegated to second place.

Simpson said: “Qualifying was awesome I got pole by just 0.7secs, but the race, well I’ve just been robbed, I was in the lead when the red flag came out. The Triumph felt good so thanks to Dave Harris and Tony Scott at T3 Racing, they built me a really good bike. It was very slippery out there and the tyres were not coping with the heat. I had to change my riding style to deal with it. I felt smooth and when I got the opportunity I took the lead. I’m not happy to have missed out on the win but I guess these things happen.”

Simpson will be back on track at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on the 28^th-30^thAugust for round nine of the Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship.

Source:  Triumph Triple Challenge