Luke Power bounces back after Saturday spill at Donington Park

Luke Power was back on track in the latest round of the FIM World Supersport Championship at the weekend, the Aussie racing at Donington Park circuit in the UK where WorldSBK began in 1988.

The iconic venue is a challenging one with fast corners, undulating blind turns and two of the back-to-back heaviest braking zones on the calendar.

For Luke, the UK round is a like a home race given his mum was born in the UK and so he was cheered on by a large local contingent throughout the event.

A solid start on Friday morning and another step in qualifying paved the way for what would see a P18 finish on Sunday after a hard charging ride through the pack saw the #68 Motozoo ME AIR MV Agusta rider narrowly miss the point scoring positions. He crashed in Saturday’s opening encounter.

He was classified second in the WorldSSP Challenge which keeps him well in contention for the title.

Off-track Luke participated in the usual Paddock Show activities which take place in the Fan Zone at each event. He also took part in both the Two Wheels for Life Charity Auction and concert. The items he donated (boots, gloves and an MV Agusta exhaust), raised over £1400 whilst his rendition of the Fast-Food song entertained thousands on Saturday night. He was voted the third best act of the night by the fans.

There is little time to rest for Luke. The next round of the championship takes place at Autodrom Most this coming weekend, a circuit he likes and showed great potential at last year.

Luke Power

“I ended my home round at Donington Park positively. I struggled a bit on the first two days. I had a decent qualifying, but the times were close, and I was just over a second off being in the top ten. I made up six positions in the first lap and was settling into a rhythm when I had a small crash which was disappointing. It was nice to be able to spend time with the fans at the Supershow and concert, singing my fast-food song and raising money for charity with the like of Alvaro Bautista and Toprak (Razgatlioglu). Donington always has a huge crowd and I want to thank them for their love and support. I posted my best time of the weekend in Sunday morning warm which gave me a confidence boost. In race two I made another good start and was up to nineteenth at the end of lap one before the red flag. That was a shame as I think with our tyre choice and strategy, we could have had an even better race. In the restart with the new tyre, I didn’t have the pace I had hoped to. Nevertheless, we were close to the points. I want to be further up but starting so far back will always compromise you. It was another step in the right direction, and I want to thank the team for all their hard work. It’s Autodrom Most this coming week so if we can improve in qualifying, we will be closer to where we should be when the lights go out, which hopefully will see us achieving the results I know we are capable of. Thanks again to all the fans, my family and friends who came. See you all soon!”