Samsung Honda's  Jon Kirkham was determined to put memories of his high-speed tumble of the series’ previous visit to Oulton Park in May behind him but it again proved to be an eventful weekend for the genial rider from Derby with only a couple of hard earned points to show for his efforts.

He started with a game plan of getting out and putting in as many laps as he could, but in the atrocious wet conditions the Samsung Honda rider slid off at Knickerbrook in the first free practice session.

“I was trying a bit too hard, having been caught up in traffic and went a bit too hard, and just slid off,” he explained. For the second session, he tried some changes to the bike set-up but “we realised we had gone the wrong way and reverted back to the wet settings we had for the opening round at Brands Hatch.”

The ill-fortune followed into the final session of free practice when he was sidelined out on the circuit. “That was down to rider error – I decided to ride round, get in as many laps as I could but ran out of fuel. I had missed two and a half races first time we came here because of the crash and just wanted to get the miles in and build confidence.”

Kirkham was going strong in qualifying but the gremlins struck again, with another machine issue. “We were getting better and better every lap, the confidence was coming back and I was feeling good about it but then we had the problem – we’re not sure what it was but have swapped engines to be on the safe side.”

And his sense of humour was not lacking: “the guys are saying to me there must be a fit girl on the recovery van as I’ve come back in it three times but there is not!”

But, there was to be further calls for recovery as the weekend continued with little good fortune for Kirkham.

In the first of the three races Kirkham pulled in with a machine problem at half distance and then midway through the first of Sunday’s races he lost it at Shell, his bike ramming heavily, and fast, into the barriers and somersaulting over the top.

Things improved somewhat in the final race for Kirkham as he collected a couple of points with a 14th place finish and he summed his time at the races: “Its been a bad weekend for me. It had started OK seventh in free practice and then qualifying went ok but an engine problem at the end of Q2 meant I couldn’t push for a higher grid position as I missed the final part of the grid decider.

“We changed the engine but then had a problem in the race with the engine braking system. It was another weekend of bad luck for me with a crash in the second race but fourteenth was the best we could do in the last one. It was a difficult, tough weekend but we can regroup and come out fighting again at Brands Hatch,” he added.