ALREADY crowned Hel Performance Motostar British Standard Class champion of 2017, Swindon youngster Max Cook finished the season with a flourish at Brands Hatch last weekend.

Improving his time in the second of two practice sessions by more than a second from the first, Cook clocked a time of 1:36.121 in qualifying which not only put him on pole but was 0.277 seconds quicker than anyone else.

However, while waiting for the start in race one, he accidentally clipped the kill switch on his bike with his glove, immediately getting himself off the grid and into pit lane as the rest of the field roared off.

Having clawed back four positions by lap four, Cook set the fastest lap of the race and was seventh by the halfway stage of the race.

Despite running out of laps to catch them he crossed the line third, just four and a half seconds from the winner.

In the second race on Sunday, Cook held pole courtesy of his race one fastest lap and made no mistake with the start, being a second ahead of his nearest rival at the end of the first lap.

With the riders behind starting to close the gap, he upped his pace and by the end of the race he had a comfortable advantage of 6.725 seconds.

Cook said: “ I made a mistake in race one and thought I’ve got to get off the grid because it’s so dangerous at the start.

“The team were great they got my engine running again and I joined the race but dead last from pit lane.

“I got my head down and just did what I wanted to do, I managed some clean overtakes and worked my way up.

“The only time I had some problems was when I came up against the GP class KTMs but in the end I got by all three of them.

“It was great to end up on the podium after that start.’’ He added: “In race two I managed to make a two or three second gap early on and then just maintained that by watching the pit board each time I came round.

“The season has been awesome and I would like to thank my family, Gary and Nikita of Wilson Racing, Danny Webb for being my mentor this year and all my sponsors.”

Cook was this week in Almeria after having been invited to attend the Red Bull Rookies selection event for 2018.

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