Seton Yamaha's Sam Warren qualified fifth in the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport race at Cadwell Park earlier today ahead of the first of two races which takes place later this afternoon as he continues his battle to finish in the top three overall as the season finale draws closer.

Warren debuted into the championship this year and has been regularly at the front end and battled with the likes and talent of Alastair Seeley and Ben Wilson; in which he has stood on the podium three times grabbing a win along the way.

Talking to www.bikesportnews.com about his season and being one of the riders to watch, he said: “I am a little bit surprised on how well my results have been. It's my first year in Supersport and my first year on a 600cc. When I switched over from Supermoto to come roadracing four years ago it was straight away on the 1000cc.”

“I am really happy with how things are going. It's a good old class really, Ben and Alastair are probably two levels above anybody else. I have had a dice with them.  Hopefully I will finish third in the championship, that's the aim.”

The Swanwick rider currently sits fifth in the championship, eight points behind third place rider Billy McConnell and so far has only suffered two DNFs. Even though Warren was well recognised in the Superstock 1000 category, he seems to be having his most successful year so far.

Warren said: “The difference for me is to be in a more professional team, I've never really had the level of support I have now. The suspension, mechanics, data analyst; those things have really made a difference. In the 1000s I was hit and miss, but I was doing all the settings myself and didn't have data logging. I'd have crashes and not really know why they happened.”

“I haven't missed the 1000s at all, with the Superstock you feel you are more on a knife edge; they are a lot heavier bike and are a lot more physical. When you jump on a Supersport bike initially it does everything you want it to, it's so light and nimble. The biggest issue for me is not using the typical Superstock lines where you break dead hard, get it up and ride out on the flat part of the tyre. Where on the Supersport you roll it on real light to get more corner speed on the edge of the tyre.”

The Yamaha has given Warren successful results at circuits he struggled on and this weekend he is pleased with where he has been running in qualifying due to missing out on a previous testing day at Cadwell Park and a whole session yesterday due to the weather.

With regards to chasing down that third place his main rivals, both of Oxford TAG Triumph, Billy McConnell qualified in third ahead of him by five tenths of a second in today's session and Paul Young was a bit behind in tenth. These three riders will be having a little showdown of their own over the next few rounds.