Hinckley rider, Peter ‘Pesky’ Ward, has taken a double race win and the Championship lead at round three of the Triumph Triple Challenge, at Croft in North Yorkshire.

The Triumph test rider lined up in second place on the grid for race one but on his way to the win he picked up the fastest lap, which gifted him pole position for race two. He translated pole position into his second race win of the day and is now a slender three points ahead of Luke Jones, the early Championship leader.

The Hereford rider finished second to Pesky in each race but he was only ever a fraction of a second behind, pushing the leader all the way to the flag, which kept the spectators enthralled.

Ashley Beech, who achieved pole position for race one, once again took a double third place but rode hard to catch up to and stay with the two front runners. Ward, Jones, and Beech have been in a league of their own all weekend with the chasing pack remaining 12secs and 14secs behind in race one and race two respectively.

Ward said: “It’s a bit too early in the year to get excited by the Championship lead, there is still a long season ahead. All three of us are so close and riding well, I need to be aggressive at the start and not give an inch. They are a lot smaller and lighter than me so I need to get away and then I can control the race.”

Jones said: “Every time I got close to Pete I made a mistake. He is really good on the brakes so he is hard to overtake. He didn’t make any mistakes all race. I’m happy with the results, three points is nothing and we are at Silverstone next which is my favourite circuit.”

Beech said: “I got a better start so I knew I could be there for the race. I’m happy with two podiums here as I usually have bad luck at Croft. I do feel ready to win, but I know my time will come. Sometimes if you push too hard for a win you can go backwards. I can’t wait to get to Silverstone.”

The fourth round of the Triumph Triple Challenge will take place on 10th-12th June at Silverstone supporting MotoGP.