SWINDON’S Charlie Nesbitt was unable to follow up his podium in round seven of the National Superstock Championship following a fall at Snetterton in round eight last weekend.

Following an encouraging time during both practice and qualifying, Nesbitt held hopes of banking another podium prior to an unfortunate incident which cost him the chance to finish the race early on.

Although the fall itself was relatively innocuous, Nesbitt was grateful to see his rivals avoid him as they passed at impressive speed.

The first of Friday’s two free-practice sessions featured scattered showers in Norfolk which played havoc with the riders’ set-ups. Nesbitt opted to take things steady at first before ultimately topping the leaderboard as he locked in some more aggressive lap times later on.

The second practice session – although much drier – saw Nesbitt follow a similar plan, and he finished in second to maintain his confidence prior to Saturday’s qualifying.

In Saturday’s only action, the Swindon man clocked the fourth fastest time to lock in the front position on the second row of the grid. Nesbitt was 0.488 behind Davey Todd on pole position, but only 0.052 behind Dan Linfoot, who has experience in British Superbikes.

Once Sunday’s race began, Nesbitt was right on the tail of the leading group until a touch of misfortune halted his race in its tracks on lap two.

Rival Alex Olsen took Murray’s Complex corner extra tight and his knee kicked up some dust which then dropped onto the track in front of Nesbitt. As the Swindon talent rode over it, he lost grip immediately and the bike went down. Due to the layout of the track, both Nesbitt and his bike skidded across some grass and hit the large curb before bouncing back onto the track in front of the lead riders. Luckily for Nesbitt, he avoided any contact with the upright riders and was able to escape to safety.

After being checked over and finding only scrapes and bruises, Nesbitt remained upbeat and told his team he was looking forward to the next round at Oulton Park.

Meanwhile, in the National Junior Superstock class, Swindon’s Max Cook continued to dominate and stretched his championship lead to 63 points with yet another victory.

After topping both practice sessions, Cook was pipped to first in qualifying by a mere 0.012 seconds. Having quickly put the disappointment of failing to claim an eighth pole position of the year behind him, the Swindon rider turned his attention to stepping onto the top of the podium in Sunday’s race.

In the 10-lap race, Cook dominated from start to finish and won by almost six seconds, extending his overall lead to 63 points with only five races and 125 points remaining.