Huddersfield racer Tom Sykes’ love affair with the Donington Park circuit continued as he claimed a fourth consecutive ‘double’ win at the East Midlands track.

The victories pushed Sykes up to second in the World Superbikes Championship as he completed yet another successful meeting in Leicestershire.

The 30-year-old, world champion in 2013, obliterated the opposition in qualifying on his way to a record-equalling fourth career Superpole position at Donington Park, to match four-time champion Carl Fogarty’s achievement at the British track – Sykes now has 35 Superpoles in total.

And as the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship season reached the halfway point Sykes had cut into the championship lead of his Kawasaki Racing Team colleague Jonathan Rea, trailing by 293-237.

From the flag in race one the action started early, with a few hard passes being put in during the first few laps, helping to leave Sykes fourth on lap two.

As the race progressed Sykes moved forward, despite having some small issues of his own to deal with, and ended up passing long-time leader Davide Giugliano on lap 17.

Rea ran out third, 9.808 seconds down, with championship second place runner Chaz Davies (Ducati) crashing out of the race.

In race two Rea pushed his teammate all the way but could not quite force a passing move and had to settle for second ahead of the Aruba.it Racing Ducati of Davies, who made it a British clean sweep on the race podium.

Sykes said: “I have no real reason why I have won so much at Donington Park but what makes it more rewarding is that I had to fight for it.

“Overall I am really happy with the wins and the plan is to be stronger, safer and more consistent.”

Results – Race One: 1 Tom Sykes (Gbr) Kawasaki 34mins 04.276secs, 2 Davide Giugliano (Ita) Ducati 34:07.145, 3 Jonathan Rea (Gbr) Kawasaki 34:14.084, 4 Leon Camier (Gbr) MV Augusta 34:18.023, 5 Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 34:18.283, 6 Lorenzo Savadori (Ita) Aprilia 34:18.916, 7 Jordi Torres (Spa) BMW 34:20.613, 8 Michael van der Mark (Ned) Honda 34:20.811, 9 Karel Abraham (Cze) BMW 34:41.150, 10 Anthony West (Aus) Kawasaki 34:43.350

Race Two: 1 Tom Sykes (Gbr) Kawasaki 33mins 55.601secs, 2 Jonathan Rea (Gbr) Kawasaki 33:57.618, 3 Chaz Davies (Gbr) Ducati 34:00.038, 4 Lorenzo Savadori (Ita) Aprilia 34:02.024, 5 Leon Camier (Gbr) MV Augusta 34:07.409, 6 Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 34:08.056, 7 Davide Giugliano (Ita) Ducati 34:19.813, 8 Michael van der Mark (Ned) Honda 34:21.532, 9 Josh Brookes (Aus) BMW 34:22.113, 10 Cameron Beaubier (USA) Yamaha 34:22.556

Leading World Championship positions: 1 Jonathan Rea (Gbr) Kawasaki 293pts, 2 Tom Sykes (Gbr) Kawasaki 237, 3 Chaz Davies (Gbr) Ducati 231, 4 Davide Giugliano (Ita) Ducati 147, 5 Michael van der Mark (Ned) Honda 141, 6 Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 136, 7 Jordi Torres (Spa) BMW 117, 8 Leon Camier (Gbr) MV Augusta 97, 9 Lorenzo Savadori (Ita) Aprilia 89, 10 Alex Lowes (Gbr) Yamaha 70

Fenay Bridge racer Kyle Smith collected more points in the World Supersport series with a sixth place at Donington – he is now fifth in the standings with 67 points.

Kyle Smith of Great Britain and CIA Landlord Insurance Honda (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images)

Out in front remains the most successful World Supersport rider of all time, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu, who took another win to head the standings with 121 points.

American PJ Jacobsen crossed the line in second for another podium finish, and second Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Randy Krummenacher completed the podium in third in another impressive ride in his rookie year.

A battle of the Brits raged just behind the podium finishers as front row starter Luke Stapleford battled Gino Rea, before GRT rider Rea managed to pull away and bring his MV Agusta home in fourth, just ahead of the Triumph of Stapleford on home turf.

Lorini rider Ayrton Badovini, after an amazing duel to the finish in Sepang, battled once again at Donington but this time with ATK 25 rider Alex Baldolini – but the duo were then joined in the fight by 24-year-old Smith.

CIA Landlord Insurance Honda rider Smith, who won the race in Assen, got past Badovini with only a handful of laps remaining, then setting his sights on next Italian Baldolini and managed to fight off both to cross the line in sixth for another good haul of points.