KARL Harris celebrated a trio of fourth places at Cadwell Park this weekend as he made the move into the Mirror.co.uk BSB-Evo Championship.

Harris was the sole rider for the Splitlath Motorsport team after new signing John Simpson crashed his Supersport bike in warm-up this morning and dislocated his shoulder. He has been ruled out of Donington Park but hopes to be back in the saddle for the penultimate round at Silverstone next month.

This left Harris to fly the flag for the Wales-based team in today’s two races, and after scoring a fourth place in yesterday’s race he was keen to at least equal that result today.

In Race One he started from 20th on the grid and got a good getaway, crossing the line in fifth spot at the end of the first lap. On Lap Five he moved up to fourth, and held the position all the way to the chequered flag, holding off the Buildbase BMW of Barry Burrell for the last eight laps.

Race Two turned out to be almost a carbon copy of the first. This time he started from 16th on the grid and fourth Evo bike and held the position from lights to flag. Again the race was won by the WFR Honda of Graeme Gowland with Scott Smart and Glen Richards taking second and third, while Harris once again defended his spot all the way to the flag from Burrell who crossed the line fifth.

“I’m pleased with that, I don’t think I could’ve done any more out there so I’m over the moon with three fourth places,” he said. “We’re running with a standard engine in our Aprilia and to be up there not too far off those WFR bikes is great.

“I think we’ve really turned the corner now with the bike and it’s an exciting way to head into the final few rounds. I think we can be challenging for the podium next time out.”

Team Principal John Dimbylow praised the team for their hard work this weekend.

“It’s been a fantastic round for us. The team is finally starting to gel and it shows in our results. The mechanics and the new crew chiefs are doing a brilliant job and Karl did his usual great job of going out and riding the wheels off the thing.

“We’ve also been very impressed with John, and it’s unfortunate that he crashed and picked up an injury this morning. However, he has more than proved he is capable of riding a 1000cc bike this weekend and we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to having him back soon.

“It’s been a tough season at times but we’ve had a great weekend here and I want to thank everyone in the team – Pete, Andy, Sam, Russ, Max, David, Simon, Peter, Zoe and Mic for their hard work so far. The team are amazing and they deserve some credit here today.”