Podium Success for Young Hopkins

This weekend saw Luke Hopkins and the Hopkins Racing team compete at the International Silverstone Circuit for the BEMSEE club race. Luke pushed his Yamaha R6 to the limit whilst competing in the Team Respro MRO 600 inc Clubman 600 class up against not only stock 600 machines but also Supersport 600 bikes. Despite not having the same specifications and tuning as some of the other 600s, 16 year old Luke from Sittingbourne still managed to qualifiy fourth place on the grid.

As the day progressed weather conditions changed frequently with a cold damp track and made bike setups hard for the races ahead. The first of Luke's races commenced early afternoon and he was off to a great start. Throughout the 7 lap race Luke was battling for third place with two others but unfortunately missed the podium spot by just one tenth of a second with fifth place right behind him but a great fourth place was secured and the team went into race 2 of 4 in high spirits. Later Saturday afternoon the grid lined up for race 2 with Luke taking fourth position on the grid. As lap one commenced Luke dropped back to fifth spot but soon picked up pace moving into forth on lap 5 and up to third on lap 6. Luke crossed the line in third place, a great position for the teenager who is still gaining experience on the 600 machine. The third place wasn't to be though and due to jump starter Luke was moved to second place and a well earned first podium and trophy of the year for the young rider.

Sunday morning saw the final day of racing and frequent down pours. After a short warm up in the morning racing commenced with the first of Luke's races declared wet. Luke was still in high spirits from the previous days racing and lined up fourth on the grid. A great start saw Luke take an early lead in the race but unfortunately was soon passed due to a few bike problems. Despite this Luke kept great pace in the race and he held second place and pulled a 14 second gap between him and third place despite it being wet and a lot of riders not finishing. Once again the Sittingbourne racer made a podium finish and crossed the line in second place. The family team were over the moon with the weekends results so far with one race to go. Sunday afternoon saw the final race commence and after putting in some strong lap times Luke crossed the line in third place after a great battle with Rowlings. A brilliant result all weekend for a team that's family run, self funded and still developing against machines that had more power, tuning and experience. Luke and the team are next competing in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 Championship at Brands Hatch on April 13-15th.