Victor Cox consolidated his top six position in the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship standings with a fine third place finish in the sixth round of the series at Knockhill on Sunday.

The 26 year old from Trowbridge has been knocking on the door of a podium on a number of occasions so far this season and he wasn't to be denied this time around the 1.3 miles circuit in the heart of the Fife countryside.

With the weather forecast looking wet for second qualifying the team knew it was important to set down a good time in the first session. Cox did just that, finishing the session in fourth just 0.21s off provisional pole and in the top six in all three sectors. His team-mate Ash Beech was also going well and the talented rider finished an excellent 11th only 0.79s off the pace.

The forecast for the second session proved correct which meant that these would ultimately be the qualifying places for both riders with Victor heading the second row and Ash on the fourth row, occupying his highest qualifying spot of the season so far.

The race got underway in dry conditions and, determined not to get caught up with the type of mishap that befell him at the previous round at Snetterton, Cox stormed into third place at the first corner and settled in behind the early pace setters Keith Farmer and Steve Brogan.

For the next few laps Victor kept the gap to Brogan to around half a second whilst holding a similar advantage over David Johnson, Jimmy Storrar and Jason O'Halloran. At third race distance postitions at the front were the same with Farmer stretching his lead over Brogan and Victor still pressing in third. Ash meanwhile was circulating just outside the points in 16th, his efforts being frustrated however by a broken fairing which unfortunately would cause him to retire from the race a few laps later.

There was drama on lap nine when championship leader O'Halloran attempted to overtake Johnson and Storrar at the hairpin and went down in the process and the incident gave Victor a bit of breathing space as he continued to push for second place. Two laps later a brilliant move at Clark's saw him move into second but Brogan fought back to again relegate Victor to third at the hairpin, Storrar meanwhile had got past Johnson to move ominously into fourth. With Farmer still out on his own by two seconds, Brogan, Cox, Storrar and Johnson flashed across the finish line at the end of Lap 14 in line formation. Then at Butcher's on the next lap, Cox swept past Brogan to go second as Storrar followed suit a lap later.

Victor had now opened up a slight gap on Storrar but before long the duo were together as their battle for second drew them closer to race leader Farmer. On Lap 17, Cox had reduced the gap to 1.2s as Farmer responded on the next lap to keep the charging duo at bay, with four laps to go the gap was again reduced slightly as Victor battled to keep the hard charging Storrar at bay.

As they began to encounter back markers with two laps to go, Storrar made his move and, with his rear tyre starting to go slightly, Victor dropped off the pace a bit to settle for a safe third as Farmer just held on to take the race win.

So a very satisfying weekend for the team and for Victor Cox in particular. Again on the pace all weekend, Victor has firmly established himself as one of the strong contenders in the championship. For Ash Beech, his disappointment in the race was more than tempered by his performance in qualifying and the young rider is showing tremendous promise.

Victor Cox: 'It was a great weekend from start to finish. Qualifying went well and it was great to be back up there on the podium in the race itself, both for myself and the team. Thanks go to Ian Lougher and the ILR Kawasaki team and to all my sponsors.'

Ash Beech: 'It was unfortunate the fairing broke at the bottom in the race, but it was no-one's fault and that's just racing for you. Otherwise it was a good weekend with my best qualifying of the season, I'm moving forward and learning all the time and I can't wait to get back out again at Oulton. We have been there already so I'll be trying to get with the front guys.

Big thanks to the team as always.'

The next round of the championship takes place at Oulton Park as the series visits the Cheshire venue for the second time this season on July 5-8.

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