JOHNNY Blackshaw has vowed to put behind him a frustrating second round in the National Superstock 1000 Championship when he heads to one of his favourite circuits later this month.

The Stretton rider, ninth in the series’ opener at Silverstone, battled both the conditions and problems with his Kawasaki bike at home track Oulton Park.

After qualifying down in 28th, he climbed to the fringes of the top 10 on a damp surface during the race.

However his machine, fitted with wet tyres, dropped back down the order when it started to dray halfway through.

“A new steering damper solved the problems I’d had in practice and qualifying,” he said.

“I then got a great start, and made up positions early on.

“A dry line then started to appear and I called it a day.

“We go to Brands Hatch next, a place I love to race, so hopefully it’s onwards and upwards from here.”

WARRINGTON'S Mark Noble was in action with his 1800cc Ford Fiesta Si in the XR Challenge & Nextec Puma Cup races as part of the Volkswagen Dubworth event at Oulton Park at the weekend.

For his first race, Noble had qualified his Fiesta in fifteenth place on the starting grid but a slow start lost him several places over the vital first few laps and more places in the second lap.  Over the remaining laps he started to gain a place every lap to finish in sixteenth overall and more importantly, first in his class.

For the second race, a good start saw him gain a place on the first lap but then he dropped three places on the next lap and was starting to pass cars when the race was ended prematurely after a total of four laps due to an incident leaving two cars stationary in the middle of the track so he finished thirteenth overall and first in his class.