V&M Racing second in Superstock Championship.

V&M Racing's David Jefferies rode a calculated race in the final round of the 2001 British Superstock championship, to secure second place in the final championship standings on his V&M Racing R1 Yamaha.

The Yorkshireman needed to finish the final race within a couple of positions of his nearest challenger, Suzuki's John Crockford, to secure the runner up spot in the championship. And despite suffering with a few slides in the closing stages, he pushed past his rival to claim a hard fought seventh position.

"I've never been so happy to finish in seventh place in my life," said Jefferies. "I knew I needed to be near John Crockford to secure second place in the final standings, but I saw my chance to nip through and took it. I had hoped to be challenging for the win at Donington, but I didn't get a particularly good start so I decided to make sure I secured second place in the championship."

Teammate Matt Llewellyn though, didn't enjoy a good finish to his British Supersport 600 campaign. With fourth place in the championship safely under his belt the Leicester rider was looking to end his year with a win, before he unfortunately crashed out of a front running position halfway through Sunday's fifteen-lap race.

After enjoying a hectic battle at the front of the field in the opening stages, Llewellyn was looking good for his second victory of the season, until he lost control of his V&M Racing R6 Yamaha at the Fogarty's Esses section of the circuit on lap eight.

"I was comfortable in second place, and beginning to think about making a move for the lead, when front runner Karl Harris ran wide in the corner. I changed to a tight line to try and nip through and lost the front end of the bike. I must have hit a small bump on the inside of the corner, and down it went. I'm bitterly disappointed," said Llewellyn.

Team owner Jack Valentine was sympathetic with his rider. "Matt's been looking good all weekend, and was definitely on for the win," he said. "He's suffered lately with a bit of bad luck in the last couple of rounds which effectively cost him any chance of winning the Supersport championship."

Valentine was also full of praise for David Jefferies performances in the British Superstock championship, after the team weathered an early season blitz from the new Suzuki GSXR1000 machines.

"David's second place in the British Superstock championship has really been quite remarkable. We knew we'd be up against it this year with the introduction of the new Suzuki's, particularly after they won the first four rounds of the series. But we buckled down got the bike handling good and David gave them a run for their money. I think we all agree, finishing second this year was equal to winning it last year," added Valentine.

He also paid tribute to the outstanding work the whole team had done during the 2001 British Supersport and Superstock campaigns. "Everyone in the team has worked really hard this year," he said. "We've now got a superb professional setup in place to hopefully move into the Superbike class next year."