Qualifying joy turns to race frustration for Staffordshire Superbike star

Staffordshire racing star Storm Stacey was left wondering what might have been after a frustrating weekend in the British Superbikes Championship.

The 23-year-old from Eccleshall enjoyed a blistering start after qualifying in third place for race one at Snetterton, recording the fastest lap ever by a Ducati at the Norfolk circuit.

But race day itself proved one to forget, as Stacey and the AJN Bathams Racing team suffered three non-finishes due to component failures.

Two of those occurred when he was in contention for a podium place, while the other came after he had raced through the pack to reach the points positions having started from the back.

Despite the disappointment, Stacey was determined to focus on the positives and the advances he believes were made with the bike’s chassis set-up over the course of the weekend.

He said: “Obviously I’m gutted about the three DNF’s, that goes without saying.

“But we’re all working flat out to get up there on the podium, and for sure this weekend it does feel that we made a breakthrough with the bike.

“As well as finding more laptime, it also started to feel a lot more comfortable to maintain that pace.”

The next round of the championship takes place at Brands Hatch later this month.

Team boss Michael Rutter added: “There are no words, but I’ve been here plenty of times before during my racing career.

“Just when you think you’ve turned a corner, lady luck steps in.

“Building this bike from scratch was never going to be easy, and every step of the journey has been a steep learning curve for us.

“Hopefully it won’t be long before this weekend is a distant memory and we do eventually get onto that podium.

“Storm is riding beautifully and the team are putting in very long hours, so I’m sure we’ll get there soon”.