Aboard the 1000cc Team NB Suzuki, the Etchilhampton near Devizes rider took his time to get up to speed on Friday following a couple of months out of action but was well on the pace during Saturday's final free practice session when a 130mph crash at the infamous Craner Curves curtailed his session despite him walking away uninjured.



Saturday afternoon's qualifying session saw him placed on row seven of the grid for both of today's races and following a good start, he battled to a brilliant 18th place in the opening 20 lap encounter before following that up with a 19th place in race two, much to the delight of the tens of thousands of fans at the Leicestershire circuit.



Whilst the results may not have emulated the top ten placings at both Silverstone and Snetterton earlier in the season, Bridewell and the Team NB staff were reasonably happy with their weekend's work.



"It's been a difficult weekend at times for everyone but we needed to get back to doing what we do and that's to go racing. Having not raced a bike properly since June, I felt very rusty for the first couple of days and the big crash didn't help during practice but race one saw me get back into the groove but then in race two, I really started to enjoy it once everything started flowing again. I'd like to thank the team and all the fans for their support this weekend, it has meant a lot to me and my family and perhaps we can get back to scoring points at Brands Hatch" said Tommy.



The final round of the championship takes place at Brands Hatch in Kent over the weekend of October 12/14th and in addition to racing the Team NB Suzuki, Tommy plans on doing a couple of 'demonstration' laps in the special' Yamaha R1-engined Mini which was a project he started with brother Ollie and which he and a number of friends have completed since Ollie's accident at Mallory Park