HOLMFIRTH racer Jonathan Lodge made a promising start to life in the British Supersport Championship and Supersport Cup at Brands Hatch.

In his first outing in the class Lodge racked up 20 Supersport Cup points over the two races – and this was achieved having discovered that the wrist he thought he had sprained after a spill in his last outing in the Superstock 600 at Silverstone was actually broken.

“It was a better meeting really, even though before practice I found out I had fractured my left wrist in the accident I had at Silverstone and it was causing a lot of pain riding the bike,” said Lodge.

“But the new bike didn’t feel much different to what I’m used to and I qualified in a decent time for my first run out.

“It put me 24th overall and fifth in the cup and it was the first time I have used a qualifying tyre, so it took a little getting used to everything.

“For the first race it was a bit of a lottery with the weather and we went for intermediate wet tyres. For the first six laps it seemed pretty good, I got up to 16th overall and leading the cup, but the weather came warmer and the sun came out half way through drying the track quickly.

“I fell back ending up seventh out of the cup runners.

“For the second race the track was perfect, but I had some work to do as I was now 28th on the grid from the lap time I did in the first race.

“I made a decent start and made a few places up straight away. I got up to 22nd and ran out of laps as I was closing on the two riders in front of me battling for third spot in the cup.”

Lodge was up against Netherton racer Josh Caygill for the first time and the MAP Triumph rider managed a 22nd place finish in the first race before going out of the second race in the eighth lap.

“It has been 12 rounds of thrills and spills and a massive learning curve in my first year in Supersport,” said Caygill.

“I knew the class would be a challenge, but also the most positive step forward.

“It has been a great experience to be given the opportunity to race with some great riders week in and out!”

For James Lodge a difficult meeting ended up with a positive outcome.

The Holmfirth rider was struggling with set-up issues right up to the race in the Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship and had qualified 24th.

However, a change to the JJ Racing/Earnshaws Motorcyles Kawasaki’s suspension gave him more grip and allowed him to make his way through to 16th, narrowly missing out on the points.

There were points for another Holmfirth rider as teenager Joe Irving finished eighth in the SUNOCO British 125GP Championship and Academy Cup. His impressive ride saw him finish his debut season in the competition in eighth place in the championship on 75 points and sixth in the Academy Cup with a haul of 101 points.

Tom Sykes looks ahead to the final World Superbikes meeting of the season in Portugal in tomorrow’s Examiner Sport