StoneBaker Racing served up another huge slice of excitement in the eighth round race of the 2008 European Superstock 600 Championship at Donington Park today. After ten extremely hard-fought laps, the Yamaha's of team riders Gino Rea and Dan Linfoot crossed the finishing line just seven-hundredths of a second apart in third and fourth place respectively to notch up the squad's sixth podium of the season.

Heavy rain had plagued the Derbyshire circuit for the previous two days of qualifying. Riding on a saturated track, Linfoot crashed out of the first wet timed session but then bounced back to claim fourth place in the dying moments of the second, nudging Rea back onto the front of the next row in the process.

Although conditions had improved for the start of the race, the track was still wet from an earlier downpour. Rea took the holeshot but was passed by Italian Marco Bussolotti (Yamaha) going into the opening Redgate corner. By the end of the first lap, Rea had also been passed by Linfoot and was coming under intense pressure from fellow Briton Alex Lowes (Kawasaki).

With all three riders fighting wheel-to-wheel, Lowes worked his way past Rea and Linfoot over the next four laps and then made good his escape. This left the StoneBaker boys to battle against each other and their machines which, shod with wet tyres on a rapidly drying track, began to lose traction. The duo ran together as one, sliding into the corners and nearly coming together on several occasions. Rea pulled ahead of Linfoot on lap eight and although the pair swapped positions four times on the final lap, it was Rea who got to the finishing line first by the narrowest of margins.

With championship leaders Loris Baz (Yamaha) and Patrick Vostarek (Honda) finishing further down the field, Rea and Linfoot retain their fourth and fifth places in the series. Both riders have scored valuable points today to close up the margin at the top of the championship table with two rounds remaining.

Gino Rea (Race 3rd, Championship 4th):
"That was a pretty exciting race, the most fun I've had all year. At the start when the track was wet I feel I had the pace to stay with the leaders, but as it dried out the surface got greasy. Our set-up was good for the wet, but in the dry the back started spinning up. There was a lot of fairing-rubbing going on at the end and it was hard to battle with Dan and keep the bike on two wheels. But overall it's been a good weekend. I'd like to say thanks to the whole team and especially to Andy Williams, my mechanic. I'd like to get a win before the end of the season. Ideally, I'd have done it here today but I'm happy with my podium and a victory at either of the last two rounds will do."

Dan Linfoot (Race 4th, Championship 5th):
"In those conditions I was happy to just stay on the bike today, I could have crashed three or four times on each lap. We lost a full half-hour of valuable wet set-up time in the first qualifying session and that had an impact on me today. When I cracked the throttle open the rear wheel would spin and there was no drive forward. Once Gino got past I decided to hold back and see where he was faster and slower than me. I got ahead of him twice on the last lap and thought I had it covered but he came back under me both times. My championship targets are now Gino and Bussolotti, they're the two riders I can realistically still get ahead of."