Bird soars to superb Thruxton victory

The 17-year-old college student, from Chidham, near Chichester, shone in Hampshire as the racing took place at the circuit alongside the British Touring Car Championship.

In stark contrast to the two previous races at Oulton Park and Rockingham which were cold and wet, the Thruxton weekend was warm and sunny.

A large crowd turned out to watch.

Thruxton is the fastest circuit in the country and can be very unforgiving with a slight mistake resulting in high speed incident.

Bird showed his form from the outset in qualifying with a front row time only for it to be disallowed for running over a kerb in the chicane and as a result he ended up in eighth place on the grid of 32 cars for the first race.

An incident soon after the start saw the race stopped while the circuit was cleared.

Bird went on to finish seventh in the opener.

The track had a huge crowd for the second day of racing with around 50,000 spectators.

Bird started seventh but he quickly made up positions and was in the leading group of four after six laps.

He continued to fly, taking second position on lap 11 and the lead on lap 15, winning by just 1/10th of a second to take his first win of the season.

Bird is now up to fifth in the standings with Silverstone next.

Email [email protected] for sponsorship opportunities and follow his progress on Twitter @maxbird35