Staintons enjoy more top 10 success north of the border

Sidecar racers Giles and Jen Stainton recorded four top 10 finishes at East Fortune - one of their favourite circuits.

It was then on to Mallory the next week where, in the pouring rain they finished both races in fourth place.

The Upton-based husband and wife team were looking forward to their races north of the border as the East Fortune paddock is full of friendly, happy racers who make the Lincolnshire pair very welcome.

Having only raced on the circuit once before - a year ago - the pair walked the track to refresh their memory of the layout.

Going out in practice they had their eye on other competitors so they could watch and learn the best lines to take ahead of qualifying where they finished eighth from the 14 competitors on track.

They were pleased to find they had recorded a best lap time of 1.12 which is three seconds quicker than their first visit last year.

In Saturday’s race Giles and Jen made further improvement to their race times, shaving a further two seconds from their previous best with a 1.10 lap for sixth.

On Sunday the pair opted to give practice a miss to analyse the opposition; finishing seventh from 15 in the first race, sixth in the second and eighth in the last in another personal best time of 1.9.

Jen said: “As usual we loved racing here and it did a whole lot of good to our confidence. There really is something special about Scottish racing and this track in particular. I personally found the Saturday challenging whilst I got my head around the physical and fast nature of the track.

“Thanks to the club, brilliant club volunteers, friendly fellow competitors and our sponsors Interfuse Ltd, Elite Signs, MMC Agency, T&S Motors.”

Last weekend Giles and Jen were at Mallory Park for an outing with the EMRA club. The weather was not good with heavy rain forecast but despite disliking wet racing they were looking forward to it and secured two strong fourth places.

They ventured out in a very wet practice session which really tested their ability but they were delighted to discover they had qualified in fifth place.

The rain had eased when they went out for their first race and although still wet the standing water had drained away they worked hard throughout the race and were rewarded by a fourth place at the flag.

Tyre choice was tricky for the second race as conditions had improved but they stuck to the wet weather tyres and soon realised it was the right choice as some seriously wet weather came across the track during the race. They managed to keep the outfits ahead in sight and once again finished in fourth place.

Jen said: “People must have thought we were mad when we came in as we celebrated like champions just out of sheer joy that we had raced in the wet, not spun and had finished an entire weekend drama free with massive smiles on our faces!

“The outfit feels so much better in the wet since our set up changes and we feel we have a strong base to now work from.”

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