Skinner storms to sixth place finish

Rory Skinner bagged a sixth-place finish in round nine of the Dickies British Supersport Championship.

The Perth racer brought his Chris Walker Kawasaki supplied ZX-6R home less than a second off what would have been his first podium finish in the class.

On Saturday evening, the 17-yearold finished ninth in the supersport sprint race, posting lap times in line with the group battling for fourth.

But he was handicapped by a mid-pack grid position and being held up by slower riders in the opening laps.

For Sunday’s longer, 15-lap, feature race Skinner made a small change to the bike’s gearing as he lined-up 10th on the combined GP2/Supersport grid.

A spell behind the safety car saw the group backed up and created a larger group of five riders battling for the final podium spot.

And in the end, Skinner whizzed home sixth in class in a race that saw him drop his lap times into the 1:38s bracket for the first time.

“I’m really happy with that,”Skinner said.“We’ve made some really positive changes to the bike and it was good to be battling closer to the front again.

“If there was any slight disappointment it was that I couldn’t quite get as involved in the battle as I would have liked to. But I had a few big slides and a little bit of chatter in the end, which held me back a bit.

“Overall, though, it’s been a good weekend and I’m really looking forward to Assen, which is a track that I like and know well from riding the smaller bikes.”

The next round of the championship takes place in the Netherlands at the iconic TT Circuit Assen on the weekend of September 20-22.