Team SaS Donington for front of site, from Helen Pask

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Team SaS Donington Park





Following their enjoyment of the racing at Snetterton two weeks ago and the joy of seeing dramatic improvements in bike handling, Upton Sidecar racers Jen and Giles Stainton were excited at the prospect of continuing the development of their F2 Sidecar at Donington Park where they recorded a 12th, seventh and sixth place in their three races last weekend.



As the track was damp they opted for intermediate tyres and ventured out to familiarise themselves with the track layout. After posting a best lap time of 1m 31s they were seeking to build on this over the course of the weekend.



Qualifying was completed on a dry track and the husband and wife team were able to improve their lap times to 1.29s and qualify in 18th position out of the mixed grid of 24 outfits.



As the first race got underway in bright sunny conditions they became embroiled in a great battle for position with Munro/Grey but the latter pulled away and out of their grasp leaving them to chase after Pettis/Philips until mid-race distance started when the outfit ahead started belching grey smoke out. Giles erred on the side of caution and dropped back a little just in case there was a further problem but they held their position and completed the race in 12th place in their class with a fastest lap of 1m 25s.



After a short practice on Sunday the Staintons took their grid position for the start of the first 10 lap race of the day. They made a good start and were delighted to have picked up enough pace to enjoy a good race with Moore/Schofield and further improve on their lap times to complete the race in seventh place.



In the second race they got away to a brilliant start and enjoyed picking off a few other outfits to get to a comfortable mid-pack position, however there was a red flag situation at five laps distance and they had to do it all again. With light drizzle falling, the race was restarted over five lap distance and again they were quick to get off the line and after a thrilling battle with Moore/Schofield and Lawrence/Nix they were delighted to find they had bettered their lap times once again to 1.23s and crossed the finish line for sixth place.6th.



Jen said: “We were made up to shave eight seconds from our best lap time of the weekend and come within 1.5s of our best lap time at Donington. We truly feel that we are on the right tracks again with the outfit and our racing and are keen to get more track time to keep steadily building confidence.



“Thank you to our sponsors as always and to the fantastic racing friends in the paddock who make this all such a great adventure.”



Team SaS will be back in action next weekend at Anglesey when they contest the Wirral 100 club open sidecar races.