RINGWOOD racer James Hillier and his Bournemouth Kawasaki teammate Luke Stapleford head to Snetterton this weekend hoping for better weather and adding to points from their last outing, in Scotland.

Hillier arrived at Knockhill to put the recent results at Cadwell and Silverstone behind him and get back among the front runners in the 1,000cc Metzeler Superstock Championship.

He started the wet practice in the right frame of mind and managed to plug away and end up tenth overall in the first wet session. Qualifying 1 was also good for James, keeping hold of tenth overall and a third row start.

The pace hotted up for Q2 and James was slightly pushed back to 12th place but still on row 3.

Race day weather was bad and as quick as the rain came down it dried 15 minutes later.

Team boss Pete Extance said of their tyre choice: “We opted for a wet front and dry rear but wished we had gone with all dries as ahead of us on the grid that seemed to be the choice of the top teams. But undeterred by this James rode the race of this year and battled to a well deserved eighth place which is where he should be finishing and first rider home with wet tyres on.

“Sixth place was well on the cards as the front had gone off after eight to ten laps of a drying track – a great result in this ultra competitive championship.”

Stapleford was again up for the race after the bad luck at Cadwell when a rider crashed in front of him and took him down.

Luke was never out of the top three in his qualifying group and ended up on the second row for his very wet Superstock 600 Race.

Luke rode an excellent, patient, race as riders fell around him to hold a superb sixth place and some more valuable championship points – now only ten points from third in the championship.

Snetterton should suit his ultra fast Kawasaki ZX6R.