ANDOVER’s Jake Archer was back in fine form last weekend at the first round of the Bennetts British Superbikes held at Silverstone as he stood proud on the podium for the second of two races for the Synergy Racing team.
Archer had a mixed weekend with a few issues – meaning he had a bad qualifying and was then forced to pull out of the Saturday race.
But the sheer grit and determination of the team run by team owner and manager, Graham Carter, working into the night and early Sunday morning, helped get Archer back out in the second race.
He was to start the second race way back in 26th place. So he really had his work cut out, but over the 25 lap race he found his form. He stormed off the line and by the end of lap one he had moved up four places to then be overtaken by Rowlings and Wakefield.
He battled with them for the next lap and managed to cut underneath them both on the left-hand corner of the 1.2-mile Silverstone circuit.
By lap 16 he had progressed 10 places bringing Wakefield with him to continue their battle into the latter stages of the race, but Archer was not done yet as he continued to move up the ranks.
By the last lap he found himself in 14th place, slightly gutted that Wakefield had managed to take him on the line but it was soon apparent that in his GP2 class he had taken the chequered flag in third place putting him on the podium and solidifying points on the leaderboard.
Jake Archer said: “It was a very good opening round for me and the Synergy Racing Team, we worked really hard on Frida, working on tyre wear with scrub tyres for the two races this weekend.
“Had a few minor blips on Saturday, costing me a little bit of time in qualifying and then forcing me out of race 1 with a few laps remaining. The team worked really hard all Saturday night and Sunday morning sorting the issue out and got rewarded with a P3 finish in race 2 which was a very emotional podium for me after a very difficult 3 years.
“I’m just happy to repay Graham and the rest of the team this early on into the season for having the faith in me when no one else had.”
The next round for Archer and the Synergy Racing Team is at the picturesque Oulton Park in the heart of Cheshire from April 30 to May 2.
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