It's three podium finishes from four starts for ILR Kawasaki as Filip Backlund finished third in the latest round of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship at a sun-kissed Donington Park on Sunday.

His team-mate Victor Cox, who won last time out at Oulton Park, also rode strongly to bring the second Ninja ZX-10R home in seventh.

On a circuit he enjoys, it was Backlund who set the pace in the opening qualifying session and he was in great form in the trying conditions. Steve Brogan was the early pace setter at the start of the session with Marshall Neill and Joe Burns both also challenging for the top spot. However Filip grabbed the initiative in the closing stages to take provisional pole from Burns, David Johnson, Brogan in fourth and former ILR Kawasaki team rider Ashley Beech a fine fifth. Victor meanwhile was down in 20th, just missing out getting in a fast lap before the rain started falling again.

In stark contrast to the previous day, much better weather greeted the riders for the second session and in a frantic half hour of action a mere 1.37 seconds covered the top twenty riders with Backlund finishing the session in fourth just 0.27s off the pace and Cox seventh just over half a second back.

It could have been so different for the Trowbridge rider, pushing for those fractions of a second that mean so much at this level, Victor crashed out in the closing stages of the session at over 130mph down through the ultra fast Craner Curves section, thankfully without injury.

Unsurprisingly his bike didn't fare as well, but the team quickly rolled up their sleeves and worked well into the evening repairing the damage and thus enabling Victor to take his place on the second row for the race. ILR Kawasaki would like to thank Be Wiser Kawasaki, Bournemouth Kawasaki and Rob McNealy who kindly offered the loan of parts, as most of the team's spare parts are currently in the team truck in the Isle of Man.


The 12-Lap event got underway in perfect weather and Filip was constantly in the hunt for the race win. Steve Brogan led in the early stages from Joe Burns and Adam Jenkinson but he ran on at the Esses in the second half of the race, dropping him down the order.

At the front of the field Jenkinson and Burns were battling it out as Filip joined in.

These three were well clear and behind, Victor was challenging Josh Day who was enjoying his best performance so far this season, Danny Johnson and Matteo Baiocco with Hudson Kennaugh a further one second back.

Filip was still riding well as the race moved into the closing stages, and on the tenth circuit he put in the second fastest lap of the race to keep the pressure on Jenkinson and Burns.

At the flag he was just under a second away in third place with Day a further 5.48 seconds back in an excellent fourth. Victor crossed the line in seventh, just over half a second off fifth place man Danny Johnson with Baiocco in sixth.

Victor Cox:

''Seventh wasn't the result I was looking for, but after my crash down Craner Curves at 130+mph the team did a mega job rebuilding the bike to get me out for the race. Massive thanks to the team and everyone that helped get me back on the track. Good to see Filip on the podium. Roll on Knockhill.''

Filip now moves up to third in the championship with Victor just one point behind in fourth.

The next round of the championship takes place in three weeks time at Knockhill.

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