SWINDON’S Max Cook dug deep to claim eighth position for Team Repli-Cast UK Racing in the first race of the eleventh round of the HEL Performance British Motostar Championship.

During qualifying at Assen, in the Netherlands, Max produced his best time in the second session, resulting in a combined qualifying time of 1 minute 50.619 seconds - putting him in 13th place.

A good start to Cooks’ opening race initially saw him move up four positions before quickly advancing hard on the wheels of Tomas DeVries’ Honda, making a move and advancing a position on lap three.

Cook found himself tucked in behind Stephen Campbell before catapulting himself past on the last lap.

The 13-year-old then overtook Sam Llewellyn, Elliot Lodge and Oliver Konig, to finish in eighth position.

Cook shot off the line in race two and took seventh position on the opening lap of the race, however, going in to turn eight he was clipped by another rider and ended up in the gravel.

“Max is now better than the rest and it’s clear to see that he is mixing it with the front runners,” said team owner Gary Dawson.

“Unfortunately an incident in race two put an end to his race, otherwise I think he would of been fighting for a podium position.

We take the positives from this and it’s clear to see that pushing out of the comfort zone, crashing will happen, Max is going to go on to become a great rider and is now understanding that for his first year he is doing exceptionally well in a British Championship and is now realising that to become the best you have to push beyond the boundaries, as long as you can get up, brush yourself down and tighten your belt, then that is a major part of racing and this is what is needed to progress.

Thank you to the team for all their hard work over the weekend and also thank you to all our supporters and sponsors that keep us on track as always.”

“I had a great race one, coming home in eighth position, which I was really happy about,” said Cook.

“I’m really gutted about race two - I had a great start, up to 7th then got taken out by another rider. I’m fine, just a bruised leg though.”

“Everything felt so good for this race, it feels like a big missed opportunity, but that’s racing I guess.

“Thanks for everything this weekend to the team, it was amazing until race two. We’re saving the best until the last. Roll on Brands Hatch.”