A red flag race stoppage ended Victor Cox's chances of a possible top six finish in the third round of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship at Oulton Park.

It was an eventful and spirited ride by Cox who at one point was third in the race and in the hunt for a second successive podium finish at the Cheshire circuit following his second place there last July.

It had all looked a bit different at the conclusion of qualifying though as Victor found himself in unfamiliar territory on the third row of the grid. His hopes of improving on his Qualifying One time were frustrated by a flat battery in Qualifying Two as he finished the session in 12th, 1.70s off the pace.

Thankfully the rain which had made for tricky conditions in some of the earlier races had cleared up as the field lined up for the race itself and Cox got a great start, completing the first lap in fourth position, 0.80s off the leading trio of O'Halloran, Storrar and Buchan whilst in turn leading fifth place man Gary Johnson by a similar margin. On the second lap, race leader O'Halloran came to grief at Britten's which meant Victor was now third and closing the gap slightly on the leaders. On the next lap he was demoted to fourth by Johnson and at this point he was doing his utmost to dip under the 1m:40s mark and maintain contact with the leaders. Things began to go astray on the fourth lap however as Victor ran on through at Hizzy's Chicane and lost valuable time as he completed the lap in ninth at the tail end of a four man group led by Steve Brogan in sixth. On the next circuit he began to lose the tow of the group slightly but on the seventh lap he posted his fastest lap of the weekend at 1:39.93s and caught and overhauled Lee Costello for eighth.


The two then switched positions for the next couple of laps with John McGuinness the only real threat from behind. Adam Jenkinson then crashed heavily at Island on the 10th lap, thankfully without injury, as Victor again moved into eighth, however the red flags soon came out to bring his battling performance to a premature conclusion. He was quickest through the finish line speed trap at 141.60mph.

Victor's team-mate Ash Beech had another encouraging weekend and improved his lap times with almost every outing on the circuit. Ash finished qualifying in 20th place and lined up on the fifth row of the grid alongside Conor Cummins. He spent the earlier laps alternating between 18th and 19th place and by the eighth lap he found himself in the thick of a six man battle for 16th place with the possibility of a points finish dented by the red flags on the eleventh lap.

So something of a challenging weekend for the team. Cox drops two places to eighth in the championship, however this paints a slightly false picture. Victor's accrued tally of 28 points is only three less than a trio of riders in front of him, the Wiltshire rider is also only nine points off second place in what is a highly competitive championship.

Ash Beech meanwhile continues to make great progress. The young newcomer to the class was only 0.63s behind his team mate Cox in qualifying and 0.15s behind Conor Cummins. Ash's best lap of 1:40.74s on the fifth lap of the race was a fine effort and his first points finish is surely just around the corner.

It's a busy time for the team next weekend as they head to Donington Park for the next round of the championship. Two races will act as support for the European Round of the FIM World Superbike Championship and will provide the team's sponsors with some excellent media coverage and publicity.

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