Impressive Clifford Takes First Masters Win

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Aaron Clifford took his first ever Masters Supersport outright win at Mondello Park on Saturday May 6th. The Duleek rider rode impressively to move from third in the early stages to pass two more highly experienced competitors and take his maiden win in just his fourth race as a Pro rider.

Clifford began the weekend with a strong qualifying performance which saw him line up second. A steady start left him in third place, on the tail of team mate Ross Patterson and another former Supersport Cup champion Kevin Keyes. Clifford and Patterson moved past Keyes before the Meath man then passed his team mate to take the lead. Unfortunately for Clifford the race was then stopped, but his efforts in the first part of the race were not in vain as he would take the re-start from pole position.

Off the restart Clifford lost out to Patterson, but by the end of lap two he was back into the lead. Following a tough battle between the two Kingsbury Packaging machines it was the Meath rider who took the win by just seven tenths of a second.

Having opened his win account on Saturday, Aaron began Sunday’s race two full of confidence. Starting third, due to his third fastest lap in race one, Clifford did not get the start he required and found himself pushed back to sixth. In such a competitive field passing is always difficult and by the time he pushed his way past the two riders in front of him, the top three were well clear and the race one winner had to settle for fourth a position he then repeated in race three.

Speaking after race three the seventeen year old said, “It’s great to finally get my first Masters win having pushed hard to get there all last year while still a Cup rider. The Kingsbury Packaging Kawasaki was fantastic and I have to thank Paddy for all of his help this weekend in getting the bike into such excellent shape. I’ll go back to the BSB Superstock series now with renewed confidence. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this win I hope its the first of many this season.”

Aaron Clifford’s next event will be the British Superbike visit to Knockhill in Scotland on the16th to the 18th of June and he will be back the Masters in Mondello Park the following weekend.

Photo Credit: Derek Wilson Photography

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