CHARLIE Nesbitt won both races at Cadwell Park over the Bank Holiday weekend to cement his position at the top of the Hel Performance Motostar British Championship.

Swindon’s Nesbitt topped free practice on Saturday morning with a lap time of 1 minute 33.817 seconds, some 1.859 seconds ahead of Jake Archer in second.

In Q1, Nesbitt traded the top spot with Dani Saez but, as the rain began to fall more heavily, had a small crash at the second corner, ending the session fourth fastest.

In bright and dry conditions for the 30-minute Q2 session, Nesbitt took the top spot on the time sheet, finishing almost three-quarters of a second faster than his nearest adversary.

Despite being on pole, Nesbitt didn’t get the best of starts to the first race and found himself trailing Saez and Ed Rendell on the opening lap but recovered his position to cross the line 2.279 seconds ahead.

The second race saw pole-sitter Nesbitt make an excellent start, closely followed by Saez and Rendell. Despite losing the lead briefly to Rendell on the first lap, he was back in control before long and managed to pull away, finishing six seconds ahead.

Nesbitt leads the championship with 330 points, 126 ahead of his nearest rival with four rounds remaining.

He said: “I like the track and I love my riding. I tried to stay concentrated and have fun."

Fellow Swindon teenager Max Cook also put in an impressive weekend’s work.

Having last visited Cadwell Park in 2015 on his way to becoming the Aprilia Superteen Champion, the 13-year-old once again showed the top-10 form that has defined his development year in the British Superbikes support series.

Starting 11th in combined qualifying, he finished there in his first race and ninth in his second to bag a weekend tally of 12 points, remaining 10th in the standings.

“After a rubbish start, I went back to 13th,” said Cook, after his first race heat. “But I managed to stay with the KTMs of Slooten and Boerboom and we moved through the field.

“Overall I’m really happy as I had a great race and took two seconds off my best lap time."