After a fantastic first practice, Paton moved to eighth place in the time sheets, and as it was his first meeting at the track, the team was looking forward to a good weekend.

Final qualifying saw Paton hold on to a fourth row start in 14th position, which, although not as good as he had hoped for, was still five places better than his previous qualifying in Valencia.

On the Sunday morning, Paton and the team agreed that their aim for the day was to finish in the top 15 and take away their first points of the series.

As the light went out for the 10-lap race, Paton got a flyer and finished the first lap in sixth position, pushing hard in the early stages of the race to stay with this leading pack on his Racedays Honda.

Spectators

Paton used up a lot of his tyres and had slipped down to 10th position as the pack began their 10th and final lap.

He worked hard to sustain his top ten result, but an error led to him missing an apex at the chicane, after which he slipped to 12th position where he finished in front of 80,000 spectators.

Prior to race weekend, Paton and the team had planned to go straight to the Italian circuit of Misano for testing, but due to a logistics problem, they had to cancel at the last minute, to ensure their team would be fully staffed for Monza.

Paton will next be out in action at Monza in Italy for the third round of the European Junior Superstock Championship, where, although he and his team know he is capable of a top ten finish, having no previous experience at the track and no time for testing, it's going to be a big ask.

Sponsor

Paton would like to thank all the people who have helped him to get a foothold in this series including Digby Brown, Pro-Scot, Paul Dandy, Para-Med 1 and Racedays Superbike Academy.

He would also like to appeal for interested parties to contact him at deejp65@ aol.com if they can help him and the team in anyway, in particular a principal sponsor for whom corporate hospitality is available.