SWINDON’S Max Cook saw his National Junior Superstock lead disappear after a mixed experience at Knockhill in the latest round of the British Superbike Championship.

A podium finish initially signalled another strong weekend in Scotland for Cook before a disastrous final race allowed his title rivals to make up ground and overtake him in the standings.

Round four practice was hampered by changeable weather with the first of the two sessions run in very wet conditions. Cook ended session one with a creditable third-placed finish before improving to record the fast time of the day in a drier session two aboard his Yamaha R6.

Saturday morning’s qualifying session saw brighter and drier track conditions which allowed Cook to leave it all out there and claim his fourth pole position of the season - a mere 0.03 seconds off the lap record to boot.

Having seen more than enough of Knockhill to make up for the five years he had been away, Cook set the early pace and led the first race of the weekend until he encountered an issue with some new equipment going into the last hairpin.

The Swindon racer ran slightly wide as he tried to recover his gearing, and he returned to the race in fourth position.

Cook battled away to rescue third before an incident later in the race with fellow competitor Owen Jenner gifted the Binch Racing man second and 20 valuable championship points.

Sunday did not go Cook’s way, however, as he fell off shortly after the safety car went back into the pits. An incident, caused by cold tyres, left Cook with a DNF against his name and two points behind Louie Valleley in the overall standings.

Elsewhere, in the National Senior Superstock Championship, Swindon’s Charlie Nesbitt was another to endure an up-and-down time in Scotland.

Nesbitt recorded fifth place in his only practice session on Friday afternoon before a disappointing qualifying session saw him finish in 10th - a fourth-row start on the grid.

After crossing the line sixth in race one, Nesbitt was involved in a nasty crash in race two.

Fortunately, the Swindon racer walked away from the incident unharmed despite skidding across the track in front of several racing bikes on his way to the gravel.

Nesbitt said: “This weekend we had some ups and downs, but overall I felt good. We got off to a good start in race one, and Sunday we started on the grid in seventh and I got off to a good start.

“Unfortunately, I had the crash in turn three, but we learn and move onto Brands Hatch in a month’s time.”