THERE were mixed fortunes for Horwich motorcyle racer Malachi Mitchell-Thomas in the latest round of the British Superbike Event at Donington Park Race Circuit.

After his return from a successful fortnight at the Manx Road Races, the 18-year-old continued the Superbike series in which he races for the Silicone Engineering Race Team.

He started the weekend brightly with third place in free practice and first in the qualifying session giving him a provisional pole position.

In the second qualifying session the following day his team was hoping for dry weather which would have helped in their attempts to maintain pole position.

But just as qualifying started rain began to fall on the first section of the circuit, which is a fast right hand bend.

This led to many of the riders taking it easy and it became apparent their speeds were not going to improve from the first qualifying session.

Mitchell-Thomas went out for a couple of laps before choosing to sit out the rest of the session as nothing could be gained from continuing.

Race day 24 hours later saw the Superstock 600 Class out in dry, sunny conditions.

The start of the race saw Malachi drop back a couple of places but by lap four he recovered to lead and he maintained first place for several laps.

He dropped to fourth before an issue arose with the braking system which led to him crashing out on the 10th lap.

He said: “I was very happy to get my first ever pole and the weekend was looking good.

“Unfortunately, with a crash in the race it didn’t end the way I would’ve liked, but we learned some valuable lessons.”

The next race takes place on the weekend of October 3-5 at Silverstone.