Stroud motorcycle racer Myles Wasley finished fifth at Brands Hatch in the seventh round of the Santander Consumer Finance KTM British Junior Cup, writes Jeremy Ryan.

The riders compete on identical KTM390 machines in a series that runs as a support class to the British Superbike racing.

Sell-out crowds lined the track adding extra excitement and nerves into the usual mix of emotions of a race weekend at a new circuit.

It all began late of Friday afternoon for Wasley when the KTM’s went out for free practice at the close of the day’s programme.

The Aqua Construction Racing Team rider was quickly lapping in the high minute 52 seconds on the GP circuit.

As his confidence grew on the track he chipped away until he finished with a very respectable 1:51.585 and position 7. He was doing particularly well in the second sector of the track from Surtees through to Sheene Curve.

The qualifying session was mid-Saturday morning. Wasley was keen to reduce his lap times further having gained some track time on the Brands Hatch GP circuit on Friday afternoon.

Within a few laps he was already setting times to equal those of free practice and quickly went on to reduce them further. He ended up with a time of 1:49.932 putting him sixth on the grid for the first race.

The first 10 lap race was just after 5pm on the same afternoon. On the first lap Wasley immediately made up a position moving in to fifth.

This was the beginning of a race long dual with Will Lathrope and Connor Thomson. They were pretty much wheel-to-wheel throughout the entire race. An exciting race to watch which resulted in Wasley crossing the line in fourth place ahead of the other two. The three riders were separated by just 0.386 seconds.

There was another long wait before Wasley could get to ride his KTM on Sunday with the race scheduled at the end of the day. Setting off at a quarter to six Wasley held his position on the first lap of nine. On the second lap He was overtaken by Connor Thomson and was being hotly pursued by three other riders behind.

Again he was engaged in a three-way battle for fifth. Lap three and the initiative swung to Wasley as he re-took fifth position only to lose it again to the same rider on the fifth lap.

In the meantime Danny Bojko was lurking ready to take advantage of any mistakes from the two riders directly ahead.

With two thirds of the race gone Wasley had been passed by Bojko and was down in eighth spot with three laps remaining.

Having worked his way to seventh after some more place changing, Wasley pounced on the penultimate lap to move ahead of both Thomson and Bojko.

All he had to do was to stay calm and keep the others behind him for one more lap. When another rider ahead crashed out on the last lap it meant that Wasley went on to claim another hard fought fifth spot and held his position by almost the same slim margin as in the race on Saturday, in front of Bojko and Thomson.

Wasley is now seventh in the championship on 136 points. However, he is only four points away from fifth place. The next race weekend will be at Cadwell Park on 27th to 29th of August.

Wasley said: “What a weekend of racing. It was amazing. Both races were so close. I had two cracking battles. I had to keep focused and calm which wasn’t easy when you have two fast riders around you. A fourth and a fifth means I got another 24 points this weekend.”

He added, “I would like to say a big thank you to all my sponsors Aqua Construction Ltd, Advanced Pool Services, Pure Plumbing & Heating, Impact Safety Armour USA, Rocket Rentals, Quattro Design Architects, and DB Racing.”