Stroud’s Dan Cooper concluded his Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship campaign at Brands Hatch on Sunday and he did so in fine style as he took an excellent ninth place finish to record his best result of the season.

With mixed weather conditions at the Kent venue on Friday and Saturday, the free practice and qualifying sessions took place on either a damp or drying track but after setting the 19th quickest time in free practice on Friday, the 32-year old truly shone in qualifying the following day.

The 2.43-mile Grand Prix circuit was damp throughout the 25-minute session but Dan and the Impcross Engineering BMW S1000RR were in their element and with a time of 1m37.539s, he qualified in an excellent seventh place which put him at the head of the third row for Sunday’s race which was scheduled for 14 laps.

However, a crash involving a number of riders on the opening lap brought out the red flag and it was eventually restarted over the shorter distance of 11 laps where a solid opening lap saw the former 125cc British Champion maintain his seventh place starting position.

A pit lane penalty for Lewis Rollo promoted Dan up to sixth on lap three but a lap later he was back in seventh as he was overhauled by Fraser Rogers. For the remainder of the race though, he found himself battling with Joe Collier, Levi Day and Jordan Weaving and at the end of the 11 hard fought laps just two seconds covered the quartet.

The end result for Dan was an excellent ninth place which gave him his best result of the season and his first inside the top ten whilst the seven points earned moved him on to a total of 18 which placed him 18th overall in the Championship standings.

Cooper said: “It’s great to end the season on a high note and with my best finish of the year and it just goes to show how much a good qualifying position helps your race result. Brands Hatch is my favourite circuit on the calendar and having already been here this year, I was able to find a good setting with the bike straightaway and hit the ground running. I felt good in both the dry and the damp and when you have one good session it gives you some good momentum and confidence for all the others.”

“I made a good start to the race and felt comfortable with the group of riders I was battling with and it felt really good to run inside the top ten all race long. Towards the end of the race I started to get a bit of arm pump which meant I had to ease my pace a little bit and I think it was exaggerated a little with the racing being that bit more intense at the head of the field. Seventh would have been nice but I’m still delighted with ninth and it’s a great way to end the year so a big thanks to the whole team and all my sponsors for their support in 2019.”