Sleaford F2 sidecar racer Gary Horspole, along with passenger Scott Parnell rode to a fine second place in the British F2 sidecar championship at Donington Park on Sunday to move into second place in the overall standings with just three rounds remaining.

Twenty-three top class F2 sidecar teams lined up for the start of Sunday’s race with Horspole and Parnell placed on row four in 10th position. The race took on a completely different format to usual, being run over 25 minutes plus one flying lap to determine the outcome.

Horspole and Parnell settled into eighth position dicing for position with Roy Hanks and Dave Wells. With the demise of the two leaders who spun off at Coppice, Horspole found himself up to fifth place but by then the pace car had been deployed to clear the crash debris and it stayed on track with the riders all bunched up behind until lap 11.

Once the race got back underway Horspole found himself up in third place and when the last lap signal was shown he made a concerted effort to pass Doug Wright and Stuart Bond to claim second place behind race winners Nick Crowe and Mark Cox.

This fine result puts Horspole and Parnell into second place in the championship standings on 83 points with three rounds (four races) remaining.

But it’s close at the top with series leaders Hanks/Wells on 88 points and Crowe/Cox just behind on 81 and with 100 points still to race for its anyone’s championship.