John McGuinness followed up his result at Cadwell Park with another strong ride at Croft on Sunday, where he was competing in round 10 of the British Supersport Championship at Croft.

The Padgetts Honda rider was again in contention throughout the weekend and he was involved in a titanic ten-rider battle for sixth place throughout the shortened ten-lap race, eventually crossing the line in 12th position, for four more championship points.

Keen to continue his return to form, the Morecambe ace slotted into 10th place in the first, damp qualifying session but with dry conditions for the final 30-minutes later in the day, this would be the session that counted.

On the pace throughout, a best time of 1m23.693s saw John take 12th place overall, for a third row start, and the close times saw two seconds separate the top 16 riders. Indeed, there was little between the riders and John was only seven tenths of a second adrift of 5th place on the grid!

A fine start saw John maintain his 12th place in the early stages of the race and he moved up to 11th after just three laps. However, just as it looked like he would move into the top ten, a crash involving Ashley Beech saw the race stopped and re-run over just ten laps.

John again made a good start but a typical first corner melee saw him shuffled back to 14th place. However, he soon re-grouped and by half race distance he was up to 12th. There was nothing between the group of ten riders battling it out for sixth place thus making a pass stick was always going to be difficult. Subsequently, John ended the race in 12th place to make it three consecutive points-scoring finishes and further confirm his return to form and fine short circuit riding.

“It’s good to be racing again and today’s race was as tough as they come. The top four riders are a step ahead this year but after that it’s incredibly close and there’s nothing between about ten of us – you’re talking split seconds," said McGuinness.

"I made a great start today and had caught the row in front of me by the first corner but then I got pushed wide and there were a few other boys up on the kerbs so it was all a bit messy. I lost a few places but got my head down and managed to haul a couple back and it was nip and tuck all way.

“I seem to keep getting myself in the wrong place at the wrong time so maybe I need to be a bit more aggressive in the first few corners because the first lap is crucial. It’s tough out there against some of these 8-stone whippets but like I say, it’s nice to be racing hard again and although 12th isn’t where I want to be, it’s more solid points on the board and I'm riding as hard as I've ever done. I’m happy and Clive’s happy so we can look forward to Scarborough now and it will be good to go there and have some fun.”

It’s back to the public roads for John next as he will be riding in next weekend’s International Gold Cup races at Scarborough, the two day meeting taking place on the Oliver’s Mount circuit on 20-21 September.