YATE teenager Luke Hedger made a massive improvement last weekend to stand on the British Supersport Championship podium for the first time.
At the beginning of the year, Hedger had to sit and watch his competition compete while he tried to sort out a ride after cutting ties with Tsingtao racing.
He returned at round three of the competition with his team from last season,  racing under the Gearlink colours atlhough it is run by RaceLab.
Last weekend was only his second outing on the bike and it went extremely well for the youngster as he improved his qualifying position from the last time out,  starting from the second row on the grid for the sprint race on Saturday afternoon,
 He got a very good start for the sprint race but the five riders in front of him just had the edge and he couldn’t make up any positions and finished in sixth.
Hedger started race two on Sunday from sixth place and again had a good start but lost a place into the first corner.
But he kept a cool head and manage to regain his sixth place on lap three.
He managed to gain one more place midway through the race and thought he was going finish the race with a very respectable fifth.
But on the last lap, the two race leaders collided and crashed out, promoting Hedger to third which is where he finished to pick up debut podium.
Despite only taking part in three of the eight races so far this year, Hedger is up to 11th in the championship table.
He said: "The start of the year was very tough  and I have miss  precious  track time.
"This weekend means so much to me. Although it was a third place finish in race two, it felt like a win and I am over the moon."
Hedger is now looking to the next round in two weeks time in Scotland.