A RETURN to Three Sisters circuit for round four of the British Supermoto Championship saw teenage Elite racer Lewis Cornish qualify his freshly-rebuilt Nameplate Services/DCR KTM in ninth place for Saturday’s 450 races.

Avoiding a turn one multi-bike pile-up, Cornish made his way up through the pack up to seventh place. However with just two laps to go he was again the victim of another rider’s crash and hit the fallen bike, causing him to take a heavy tumble.

Despite suffering a nasty-looking injury to his forearm, he nursed himself and his damaged KTM across the line to a points-scoring 14th position.

A trip to the medics, a few pain killers and a repaired machine later, Cornish was keen to end his run of bad luck despite being in pain.

The following two races saw the plucky Norfolk youngster conclude his Saturday’s racing with a move up the field to score a pair of eighth-place finishes.

A battered and bruised Cornish lined up for Sunday’s Open Elite races but a poor choice of tyre on the drying circuit saw him drop back from his seventh-place grid position to a disappointing 11th at the flag.

After a review of tyre choice for races two and three, he finished 10th and eighth respectively which means he currently holds seventh position in the 450 and eighth in the Open Elite British Supermoto Championships.

The following weekend, thanks to the generosity of Billy Holt at Nameplate Services, Cornish was entered in rounds five and six of the SSM.UK Supermoto Championships at a fantastic new venue at Rednal near Oswestry, Shropshire.

The Saturday saw dry conditions which allowed a display of some outstanding supermoto action.

Unbeaten SSM.UK championship leader Ben Robb and Lewis thrilled onlookers in qualifying. Off the line in race one the two riders pulled away from the chasing pack and as Cornish piled on the pressure to take the race win.

In the extremely wet and windy conditions for Sunday’s races it was decided to miss out the off-road section. Cornish put his bike on pole by 0.75 sec and things looked promising despite the torrential rain.

He made a clean get-away but as he got on the gas coming out of turn three he was drawn into the tyre wall and the impact left Cornish with a stalled machine. The chasing pack passed and left him in dead last position.

Cornish plucked his KTM out of the tyre wall to set off in pursuit. Despite having trouble with vision due to the atrocious weather conditions, he passed every racer on the circuit apart from Robb, who eventually took the race win.

Over the following races the two riders showed they were in a class of their own and despite Cornish’s best efforts he could only finish runner-up to Robb for second place overall.

Lewis explained “It’s great to be on the podium again and we’ve had some good racing here on this superb new circuit. I’m pleased to have had a race win but it’s disappointing the dirt section wasn’t used in the rain because I reckon I could have been looking for another win. A big thanks to Billy and Dave for getting me to an extra race meeting.”

The next BSMC round is at the redeveloped Blyton Park on July 2 and 3.

Cornish and his family thanked the sponsors for their support during the 2011 season.