CHARLIE Nesbitt stormed to third place at Donington Park last weekend to take his first podium of the season in the Motul Motostar Championship.

Scott Redding-backed Nesbitt produced consistently fast laps during Saturday morning’s qualifying session. Nesbitt ended the day sixth fastest, a position the Swindon rider was confident of improving on race day. However a high-speed crash in the afternoon re-run looked to have ended his hopes.

With a patched-up bike, Nesbitt proved his championship-winning pedigree by securing his first Motul Motostar Championship third place, a podium debut, in the Sunday race at the Donington Circuit. Nesbitt, starting from sixth on the grid, battled hard on his Repli-Cast Honda Moto3 to challenge the front runners, claiming his third sport on his eighth lap and setting the first of his fastest laps of the race on lap three.

The 13-year-old rider pushed hard for second, but with the previous day’s re-run, he kept his head and settled into a comfortable third place.

Nesbitt was delighted to have come back to secure what looked an unlikely result after his crash.

“That is what you call the highs and lows of racing. On Saturday I had the fastest crash of my career at 114mph down Craner Curves and damaged the bike badly,” he said.

“The team had to work through the night to get it fixed but a massive thanks to the team and Simon Whatley for going into work and welding my chassis.

“On Sunday, I got an amazing start making up three places into the first corner and spent the whole race battling with Asher Durham and Edward Rendell. I had a few really big slides from the back but finished in a career best third position in my class.”

Gary Dawson, Repli-Cast team manager, was very proud of his riders’ efforts, he said: “I’m so proud of both our riders this weekend and these ups and downs are part of the racing game that we all love. It’s such a pleasure to see the massive smiles on the kid’s faces when it goes right.

“We try to tell them its how we come back from the downs, and boy, what a come back for Charlie.”

With Nesbitt having now made his debut podium, in only his first year on the championship stage, he moves on to the 2014 Championship at the TT Circuit, Assen over the weekend of September 19.