Joe Collier once again competed in the Ducati Performance Tri Options Cup on the BPS Racing Ducati at Silverstone Circuit. He once again raced the Fab Racing Speed-Up Moto2 bike in the Dickies British Supersport Championship as a guest rider.
Ducati Tri-Options
Joe had another fantastic weekend and was able to be the first rider to secure a Championship in 2017 by becoming the Ducati Perfomance Tri Options Cup Champion.
Despite a crash in qualifying Joe still started the first race from fourth place on the grid. He got a good start and was soon at the front and extending his lead. He managed to win the race by a massive 24-seconds and seal the Championship Trophy.
For race two he started from pole position, despite not having ridden the bike at Silverstone in the dry before Joe once again took another strong victory, four seconds ahead of his nearest rival. With only Assen of the series remaining Joe secured the Championship as he extended his lead to 122.5 points!
Dickies British Supersport
Joe once again got the opportunity to ride the Fab Racing Speed-Up Moto2 machine at Silverstone. Both the free practice sessions were wet and Joe ended up 7th and 6th in the two sessions before qualifying. The track dried for qualifying so it made machine set-up more difficult. He ended up starting the opening race from 14th.
The conditions were mixed for the race and tyre choice was a gamble. The team ended up using a slick rear and wet front which sadly was the wrong decision and Joe managed to bring it home in 13th position. With a rule announcement on Saturday night that Supersport 600 would continue for at least another two years the team made the tough decision to pull out from the remainder of the season.
Joe Collier - "It was another good weekend for us and we sealed the Ducati Championship with a round to go. The weather was mixed all weekend so you just got used to riding one way and the weather would change again. By race two I'd not ridden the Ducati in the dry around Silverstone so it took a little bit of getting used too.
I'm really happy with the result over the weekend and winning the Championship. I was fortunate to win 10 of the 14 races and a big thank you to Mike for asking me to ride last minute. Thanks to everyone that continues to support me and hopefully next year I will secure a good ride somewhere.
On the Moto2 Class once again the practice sessions were wet and then we struggled when it came to try qualifying to find a good set up. I had to start from 14th and due to a wrong tyre choice I just had to nurse the bike home for 13th place.
Following on from a meeting that night on the future of 600 machines which didn't suit the Fab Racing Moto2 set-up they have decided to pull from the rest of the season. This is a real shame as I loved testing and making the Speed-Up Chassis work but again unfortunately these things happen in racing.
I would just like to say a big thanks to Rob and Roger Keys for letting me part of such a cool experience and getting my leg over a full on race bike, it's been such an enjoyable time and taught me a lot!"
