SUCCESSFUL WEEKEND ON BOTH TWO & THREE WHEELS AT BATTLE OF BRITAIN

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Maria Costello MBE enjoyed a weekend of racing both her sidecar and the Mark Coverdale Paton at the North East Motorcycle Racing Club’s Battle of Britain meeting that featured a round of the FSRA F2 British Championship at Croft.
Racing at the North Yorkshire track for the first time, Maria took the Mark Coverdale Paton as well as her sidecar to Dalton-on-Tees to help with learning the track she had never seen before.

Maria & Vicky qualifying for the FSRA race in the wet.
Image Credit: Brian Blackett


The extra laps completed during the test day proved invaluable as the weather took a turn for the worst on Saturday, but despite the torrential downpour and surface water, Maria and passenger Vicky Cooke, who was last here on a front exit classic sidecar many years ago, qualified in 14th place.
The track dried for Saturday’s race but fine rain made for tricky conditions. Improving with every lap and in a very strong field they finished 12th with a fastest lap time of 1:39.542.
“I joked about learning a track at my age but I’m so glad we came to this event, it was a steep learning curve but it’s been so enjoyable and, more importantly, it’s given us loads of positives and a real boost to our partnership,” said Maria. “The added bonus was I also got to race the Paton. I did both disciplines on the same day at the TT in 2019 and now I’ve done it at a short circuit meeting. It felt so good.”

Maria onboard the Mark Coverdale Paton SC1 at Croft.
Image credit: Ken Murray

Unfortunately, the sidecar gearbox was difficult all weekend and despite adjustments with the shift linkage and gate, it failed during the second race on Sunday and Maria and Vicky were forced to retire on lap eight. But they had another positive take-away of a best lap time of 1:37.129.
Maria said: “This weekend proves that we are clicking as a team. Massive thanks to both Vicky and team mechanic Matt. I couldn’t be happier with our progress and now we’ll be adjusting the sidecar to allow us to improve further as we continue this season.”
Vicky added: “What a weekend! Maria was faultless all weekend on a circuit she’d never seen before in tricky conditions. The lap times over the weekend show our improvements and to be mixing with the quality of teams in a strong British grid was a great feeling.”
Maria and her mechanic, along with the help of MJW Specialists and ColourKraft, will be busy preparing the sidecar for the next meeting at the start of September.

Huge thanks to all the 2021 SPONSORS:

  • RAM SAFETY SOLUTIONS UK LTD 
  • MARK COVERDALE
  • HEGARTY UK
  • ROCK OIL
  • MAC TOOLS
  • QUINNS THE PRINTERS
  • MJW SPECIALISTS
  • PREMIER BODYWORKS
  • RST
  • ARAI
  • NITRON SUSPENSION
  • NOVA RACING
  • COLOURKRAFT
  • HG CONCEPTS
  • KNOX
  • NGK SPARK PLUGS
  • SARACEN BIKES
  • RACEBIKE BITZ
  • RACING BATTERIES
  • PIPERCROSS
  • HEL PERFORMANCE
  • PROGRIP
  • DR MOTO
  • MSS PERFORMANCE
  • JAP4 PERFORMANCE
  • UNIT FITNESS PROGRAMMING
  • CHRISTIAN BAKER
  • DNG
  • TM DETAILING
  • BRONWEN DESIGNS
  • CYBER SIGN COMPANY UK
  • EAGLES CREATIVE

NB MASSAGE.