Yamaha's Ben Wilson scored a brace of second places in his two races at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire on Sunday and keeps his championship hopes alive by picking up a further 20 points to retain his lead in the Henderson R1 Autumn Cup.

Ben was consistent throughout qualifying and set the second fastest time of the day to claim a front row start to the 13-lap affair, lining up alongside his main opponent Jon Kirkham.

As the race got underway it was Kirkham that got the hole shot with Wilson in his tyre tracks as they negotiated Hawthorne Bend for the first time.

Kirkham steadily increased his lead as he went on to take the win but Wilson was never troubled in second place and crossed the finish line some four seconds ahead of Victor Cox in third place.

“I have been second in this series on too many occasions,” said Wilson. “I need to find a way to beat Jon if I am going to win the Autumn Cup. He has been so fast all weekend and even though I produced my fastest lap of the weekend I still couldn’t quite match Jon. But we will keep on trying, thanks to all my sponsors for keeping me out there.”

Wilson comes away from Croft with 20 championship points and a four-point lead over Kirkham in the Autumn Cup. He is also placed second in the overall championship, trailing Kirkham by 28 points with two races remaining. With 50 points left on the table it is unlikely, but not impossible for Wilson to win the main championship but he has sealed second place as he has a 51-point advantage over Sam Warren.

With hardly time to catch his breath, Wilson hopped on board the Ben Wilson Racing Yamaha R1 for the start of the Metzeler National Superstock race.

Again he had secured a front row start in fourth place wit Kirkham once again on pole position. But this time it was Wilson that got the hole shot to lead the field through the first lap. But his lead was short lived as Kirkham went past at the exit to Sunny to pull clear leaving Wilson to battle it out for second place.

There followed a monumental battle for the runner up spot between Wilson and Steve Brogan with fellow Lincolnshire rider Peter Hickman hovering in fourth place ready to pick up the pieces if it all went wrong.
Brogan, who is only a handful of points away from winning the series, was anxious to claim maximum points and wrap up the title, but Wilson was not giving up without a fight.

Brogan edged forward and took second place on lap two but the Lincolnshire Poacher was never far behind and fought back to regain his position at Tower on lap seven of 15. Two laps later and the pair exchanged places at virtually every corner, the battle continuing right up to the last lap. The pace was fast and furious and finally Wilson got ahead at the very last corner to streak across the finish line and claim his second runner up spot of the day.

“I am pretty pleased with that result,” said Wilson. “I had a good battle with Brogan with a few touchy feely bits where we clashed fairings but I beat him in the end so that’s good for me. My lap times were consistent and my fastest lap of 1.22.999s posted on lap four was just eight-hundredths of a second away from the lap record."