Eugene McManus Jnr continued his incredible run of form with another podium finish in the Hel Performance Motostar British Championship at Oulton Park. With family and friends cheering on he clinched second spot behind Tom Booth Amos in an incident packed race.
In Saturday's FP1 Eugene completed 8 laps, clocking up a best lap of 1:48.785 on the 2.69 mile International circuit. FP1 was dominated by the City Lifting duo of Tom Booth Amos and Jake Archer, who were some 2.5 seconds quicker than Eugene riding RS Racing ktm's. In FP2 Eugene showed steady progress to improve on the morning session with a quicker lap of 1:47.060 just 1.4 seconds behind leader Booth Amos.
On Sunday morning Eugene made a huge step and took the honours in FP3 setting a 1:46.238 lap time with Tom Booth Amos just 0.183 adrift. Booth Amos, Jake Archer and McManus were all expected to be amongst the afternoon's front runners.
Qualifying began with the wee bull getting away alongside the City Lifting riders, clearly a tactic that worked as Eugene consistently produced the sort of lap times that would almost guarantee him a front row start. Booth Amos set a stunning time of 1:44.690 in his final lap to clinch pole, 0.442 ahead of the impressive McManus Jnr who claimed a front row spot alongside Taz Taylor in third.
Bank Holiday Monday's race was shortened to 11 laps following an incident at the start, McManus and Taylor set off in pursuit of front runners Tom Booth Amos and Jake Archer, the foursome pulled ahead of the field with Booth Amos dominating each lap setting consistently fast lap times. Archer made a minor mistake pushing him out of the podium places leaving the wee bull to battle for second with Taz Taylor. On the run to the chequered flag McManus snatched second place from Taylor by 0.049 of a second.
Eugene Jnr:
" I am loving every moment this season, I never thought I would be winning trophies so soon and I love the battles with Tom and Jake!! thank you to my sponsors and a special mention to my family for all their support"
Eugene sits third in the championship on 65 points, 10 behind Archer in second, Booth Amos extended his lead at the top on 100 points. We now enter a mini break until E15 Racing travel to Scotland for the 4th round at Knockhill 16th-18th June 2017