Sam Lowes honoured the memory of late Elf Marc VDS Racing Team owner Marc van der Straten in the best possible way today with an emotional podium finish in front of his home crowd at the Donington Park WorldSBK round 

After the paddock came together this morning to show their respect and affection for Marc with a minute’s applause after his passing last weekend, Lowes produced his own fitting tribute with a third place in the Superpole race.

Racing with a black number as part of several tributes to Marc, Lowes was also dicing in the podium places in this afternoon’s full-length Race 2 before he took the chequered flag in seventh position.

^{/// SAM LOWES:}
Superpole Race: 3rd
Race 2: 7th

Clear blue skies and glorious sunshine drew a large Sunday crowd to Donington Park and Lowes got them on their feet with a sensational third place in the 10-lap Superpole battle.

The 12th podium finish of the British star’s WorldSBK career was certainly the most emotional as he paid a heartfelt tribute to Marc after taking third behind Nicolo Bulega and Yari Montella.

That result put the British star on the front row of the grid for Race 2, which started in warm temperatures of 25 degrees.

Twin brother Alex quickly attacked on the short run to turn one to drop the 35-year-old back to fourth place, but it was Sam who began getting the better of the sibling rivalry when he counter attacked to reclaim third on lap seven.

Readying himself for another podium challenge in the second half of the race, Lowes was unfortunately unable to sustain his impressive pace when he encountered issues.

Three strong race performances at Donington Park keep Lowes fifth in the overall rankings with a long pause in the action before it’s back on track for round nine at Magny-Cours in France in early September.

“I really wanted that podium for Marc” 

“We can look back on this weekend as a positive one given how difficult the build-up has been. I was super proud to get on the podium in the Superpole race this morning because I really wanted that to honour the memory of Marc. It was also a super special feeling to get a podium in front of the British fans. Their support has been phenomenal once again and I love racing at Donington. The track is awesome and the support mega, and each year I come back it seems the backing I get just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to keep myself in that battle for the podium in Race 2, but we encountered some issues that made it really tough for me to maintain my pace. That was unfortunate but it can happen in racing. The important thing was to get three good results here which I did, and we can go into the summer break with confidence going to France.”