Tom Tunstall is determined to improve for Oulton Park over the May Day bank holiday after finishing 26th on his return to the British Superbike Championships at Brands Hatch.

Riding his Doodson Motorsport Kawasaki in the Superstock 1000, Tunstall’s return to track action after 18 months out didn’t go to plan.

After some teething technical problems, Tunstall missed automatic qualification by less than 0.1sec on the Indy circuit and had to used the Last Chance qualifer race, in wet conditions, to take his place in 34th on the grid.

The opening 24-lap encounter was fortunately held in warm and dry conditions. However it had to be re-started after only a couple of laps after a two-rider collision into Paddock Hill bend which Tunstall was very lucky not to be caught up in.

The re-start didn’t fall quite as well as Tunstall found himself towards the back of the field with a lot of work to do.

From lap eight onwards he was lapping as fast as the riders fighting for the top 12, but despite picking up a few places ended the race back in 26th.

Tunstall was understandably disappointed and explained: “It’s not the start we had planned as both myself and the bike are capable of better.

“We were on the back foot from the first day and the changeable weather didn’t help.

“I lost too much in the early part of the race and wasn’t able to make it back. My race pace was respectable from lap eight but we’ve got some work to do for the next round where we certainly need to progress and improve the results.

“We’ve got a test planned in the meantime and I’m already looking forward to getting stuck in at Oulton next time out”.

Huddersfield racer Jonathan Lodge finished 22nd in the same Superstock 1000 race for his Kawasaki DiesoLiFT Unipart Rail Racing team.

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