Three out of three at Three Sisters

Stafford showed sparks of brilliance at the Three Sisters circuit, Wigan last weekend with wins in all three races on his D3 Racing KTM 250, in front of several local sponsors and supporters...
After free practice session Stafford continued his trend by taking pole position again for the sixth time in succession, and proving himself worthy of his 2010 title by dominating all three races in round 6 of the Norasport British Supermoto Championship.

On a very warm Wigan day, and with a larger field including 2 guest riders from France, Ben took the first race of the day leading from the front and putting in sturdy lap times of 58.5 seconds after a qualifying time of 58.9 .

In race 2 Ben once again dominated from the front and eased his 250cc KTM machine round the circuit as it purred round the 8 lap race to take a very comfortable 15 second lead from his next rival on the finishing line.

The third and last race of the day differed only, by another rider jumping the start and taking the lead into the first corner, but it was only a matter of seconds before Stafford regained the lead and pulled out to take his last win of the day with an 8 second lead and the podium position for the day with the two French brothers in second and third place.

In the open Elite race at Sunday’s meeting, and Stafford aboard a 350 cc KTM bike built by the D3 team overnight in the paddock, giving him more horsepower than his 250 against the larger Elite machines Ben proved his worth. After three laps of free practice and straight in to qualifying Stafford pushed the machine to gain him his best position in this category of 9th on the grid out of 25 riders.

In the first race of the day and being muscled out at the first corner Stafford found himself in 12th position leaving lots to do to achieve at least his qualifying position. After several laps and some timely overtaking he found himself in 10th position and remained in that position lining up his overtaking move for at least 4 laps. On the penultimate lap he overtook his rival and gapped him within half a lap and began to close quickly on the the 7th position rider, just running out of laps and finishing only one second behind him on the line for a commendable 8th place.

Race two saw Ben on the inside line going into the first corner, and with a good start maintained his position only to loose this on the dirt section with two other riders getting tangled up in front and Stafford having no where to go. Restarting in last position he regained two places only to have problems with the bike due to the fall. This saw the end of Ben’s race as he limped the bike across the line, leaving him with a lot to do in race three where he would start from the rear of the grid.

Race 3 was always going to be hard starting from the rear however this youngster always digs deep when faced with a challenge and set about moving through the pack with steady progress until mid race and pushing hard Stafford went down at high speed on a fast left hander re mounting and having to do it all again! Not an ideal finish to Sunday’s event however with three rounds to go and time to develop the new machine this will be looked upon as a good bench mark for the machine and riders capability’s going forward.

Next round is Blyton in North Lincolnshire for a three day event 27/28th and 29th August.