Halsall Racing’s Lee Costello topped off his rookie year in the MCE British Superbike championship in spectacular fashion, and rounded off the weekend at Brands Hatch with his maiden podium, finishing second in race two.

The Bolton rider appeared to adapt well to the rainy conditions at the track and is still in a state of shock over how well he performed. It has been a tough season for his debut year, and he has had to contend with learning to ride a new bike and dealing with different setups.

But he is now looking forward to 2014, and he will remain with Martin Halsall and his team for next year, where he hopes to improve as he will have a season of data under his belt.

“It rained, that is all that happened this weekend and it was all about being smooth in the rain and that is what I can do. I can’t quite believe that I have had my first podium, and when I got into the lead in race two I tried not to make any mistakes, and then Josh came around and got the win. I would like to thank Martin Halsall and the rest of the team, it has been a really hard year” said Costello, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“If you would have asked me if I would have been on the podium at the start of the weekend I would have laughed but hopefully there will be more podiums along the way.

“It is a nice way to end the season, with the results. We have been struggling with setting the bike up all year, and it comes to the last round and we finally find something. Next year I will be with the Halsall Racing team, and in the same class.

“We started from scratch this year and we had no setup, and I have been learning to ride the bike and set it up at the same time too, and we will now have some back up data for next year too.”