Magic Max Cook wins national crown for Mansfield-based Binch Racing

Heading into the double header race weekend at Oulton Park, Max had a commanding 63 point lead.

They ended it 91 points in the lead with only 75 available in the next three races, so can't be beaten and will be crowned champions at Donington Park at the penultimate round this weekend.

On the last lap of practice, Max felt settled and pushed on to top the time sheets while championship rival Louis Valleley was involved in an incident that resulted in a head injury.

On safety grounds, still showing signs of a concussion, Louis was deemed unfit to take part in the rest of the weekend racing and was also forced to miss out on the next round at Donington.

With Louis now injured, Dan Brooks and Franco Bourne were the only two riders capable of bridging the championship gap to Max.

Max secured pole position in qualifying with Brooks and Bourne fifth and second respectively.

As the lights went out in race one Max tipped into turn one in third place behind Seth Crump and race leader Franco Bourne. Max used half of the lap to get his tyres up to temperature before mounting a charge.

By the end of lap one Max had restored his pole position, going into the lead and taking the chequered flag with a gap of 0.87 of a second over Bourne.

Dan Brooks finished the race in fourth which increased Max’s championship lead to 75 points with only 100 left on the table.

Heading into the second and final race on Sunday the whole team was bursting with a nervous excitement. Max and Binch Racing firmly had one hand on the title, but there was still work to do.

Sam Laffins set the fastest lap in the first run before falling off defending his line into the Lodge section of the circuit. So Sam started from pole position pushing Max back to second.

Max made the perfect start taking the lead by turn one and started to pull a gap on the chasing pack which increased to a maximum of 3.66 seconds on lap 10 before he crossed the line to manic cheers and celebrations.