Difficult conditions in the early part of the day saw Stephen Sword and Tom Church qualify in 4th and 5th positions respectively in Q2 superpole at Mallory Park on Sunday.

Race 1 saw Steve get the holeshot only to lose the front end exiting turn 1, still managing to keep the engine running Steve picked himself up and rejoined  to position himself in 12th place at the end of lap 1. Meanwhile Tom started in a mid top 10 position to push on and finish the race in 6th place. Steve rode hard passing his team mate mid way to secure 5th at the finish.

Race 2 was looking good and it was the Russian Evgeny Bobryshev who got the holeshot with both Steve and Tom inside the top three exiting the first turn. Slight mistakes on lap one saw both the CCM riders lose positions and allowed Bobryshev  to pull away from the pack, after a few laps Steve got the bit between his teeth and reeled in Anderson , Eldridge , Swanepoel and Pichon one by one finding himself in second place and closing fast on Bobryshev  but not enough time in the race to make a pass saw Steve settle for 2nd in race 2 with Tom battling on for 7th at the flag.

Race 3 and Tom was the fast starter exiting the first turn in 2nd just behind two times World Champion Michele Pichon, Tom was finding the pace quite hard on his finger and dropped down to 6th at the finish. Steve however had a bad start and pushed through the pack quickly to begin to reel in the leaders, again passing all but Pichon who had built up an uncatchable lead to finish 2nd at the flag.

Four times World Champion and CCM’s Sporting Director David Thorpe said after the event “I am really pleased with both riders today, Tom has been nursing an injury to his finger and managed to get through the day with 3 top seven results and no further injury so whilst he is slightly disappointed with his results, realistically he has had a good result today and he has moved up a place in the Championship. Steve has moved himself up into second in the Championship only 8 points behind going into round 3 so we have to be happy with today’s results.”

The next round is on May 2nd at Duns in Scotland and CCM are looking to get some wins under their belts.