YATE’S Luke Hedger was determined to get as good a finish as possible in his last race of 2017 on Sunday.

Saturday saw a very exciting qualifying session. Crashes gave Hedger a chance to move up a few places on the grid.

He did just that as Hedger came across the line in 8th place placing him on row three for Sunday’s race.

Whilst at the front, Danny Buchan and Richard Cooper were fighting for the top spot, Hedger had some great battles with the top seven riders to bring the EHA Racing Aprilia machine home in fifth place.

Hedger was extremely lucky to have finished the last race of the year as, on lap one, two fellow riders crashed and the Yate rider had to avoid the fallen machines.

He lost a couple of positions due to this but the crash caused the safety car to be deployed. which helped bunch the pack back up.

Hedger, at this point, was in ninth. Three laps later, the safety car came back in and the race got back under way.

Hedger managed to make his way passed four more of his competitors and was gaining on fourth and third place but run out of laps as the chequered flag came down Hedger has had a very exciting rookie year with EHA Racing, proving that there is no challenge to great for the 21-year-old, maintaining consistency with four, fourth place finishes.

Hedger said: “It was a big step jumping up to Stock 1000 this year, but a very enjoyable one working with EHA Racing and riding the Aprilia RSV4 RF.

“The whole season was a learning process for us all, but in amongst some very strong and experienced competitors, “I think we did a decent job.”