Blaze Baker won on his debut in the opening Ducati TriOptions Cup race of the weekend at Donington Park, impressing on the Trackdemons Racing Powered by HDM Ducati to take the chequered flag with a 1.054s edge over Tom Tunstall.
Tunstall had started from pole position and he grabbed the lead from Shoubridge at the start of the race with Baker holding third ahead of Mark Bridger and Michael Tustin.
Tunstall was holding the lead but Shoubridge had him in sight and on lap six, he took the position on the Rich Energy Ducati to move to the front of the pack.
Baker then launched to the front of the field on lap eight with Shoubridge and Tunstall in close contention. Shoubridge reclaimed the lead on the same lap as he bid to increase his advantage at the top of the standings.
Baker was relentless and was back in the lead on the penultimate lap, only for Shoubridge to pull a move back on his latest rival.
On the final lap Baker started with the edge with Tunstall second as Shoubridge crashed out of the podium fight. That cut his advantage in the championship points and there are now just four points separating Shoubridge from Tunstall ahead of race two tomorrow.
Connor Rossi Thompson was tenth after the opening laps but he had moved up to eighth by half race distance and fought until the finish, claiming sixth place, just adrift of Bob Collins who had a strong debut in the Ducati TriOptions Cup, finishing in fifth place for the Team Aramex/ULS team.
Ducati TriOptions Cup, Donington Park, Race 1 result:
- Blaze Baker (Trackdemons Racing Powered by HDM Ducati)
- Tom Tunstall (Motorcycle Race Parts) +1.054s
- Mark Bridger (Moto46) +13.971s
- Michael Tustin (AH Performance Breckland Utility S.Ducati) +14.607s
- Bob Collins (Team Aramex/ULS) +14.735s