British Superbike regular James Hillier enjoyed his best ever result at the Isle of Man TT on Saturday when he took eighth in the Superbike race although the 25-year old was slightly disappointed not to have finished higher having been running in a brilliant fifth place in the early stages of the race.

The Bournemouth Kawasaki rider was lying in 5th place at Glen Helen only one second behind Guy Martin and five seconds off the race lead and his opening lap was a new personal best of 127.661mph. However, a 30-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropped him down the order to 10th although he fought his back to eighth at the chequered flag.

"The bike was definitely better than it had been in practice and I was certainly in the zone on the first lap. I had William Dunlop and Dan Kneen in my sights along the Cronk y Voddy on the opening lap and everything just felt right. I feel confident now that I know where I'm going properly and am pretty happy with all the sections of the course although I know there's time to be gained from Ginger Hall to Ramsey. The other thing that I need to do is when I catch someone I need to get by them straightaway," said Hillier, speaking to bikesportnews.com this afternoon.

"I'm a bit hesitant and kind of get mesmerised by sitting in behind and following them but it's losing me some time. When Michael Dunlop came by me towards the end I was able to sit with him and run the same pace that he was running, and it felt really comfortable, but when we caught a backmarker he went straight by him whereas I didn't. I got held up from Barregarrow all the way to Kirk Michael and when I did get by him, Michael had gone. It's a good start to the week though so the aim is to be in the top ten in each and every race now."