LUKE Hedger had a very good weekend at Silverstone for the penultimate round of the British Supersport Championship

The Yate teenager secured his first front row start on the grid since moving up into the class for the second race on Sunday, reflecting the massive progress he has made in his debut season.

Qualifying was delayed by two hours due to there being so much watch on the circuit and it was declared unsafe.

Eventually the track inspection was passed so it could get underway and just as Hedger set the seventh fastest lap time the session was red-flagged due to another rider falling off.

With just six minutes of the session left, all the riders went back out but Hedger could not go any faster and ended up down in 17th for the sprint race that afternoon.

Race one took place on time but the circuit was still damp in places with the majority of racers out on dry tyres.

As the race got underway Hedger made up four places off the start and by lap three he was into 11th place.

Although he only managed to finish 10th by the end he had set the third fastest lap so started the race on Sunday from the front row.

Hedger got off to a very good start, making a place up into second and found himself having a lap long battle with Alastair Seeley, who eventually overtook him.

He held third place for another lap but he got a little beaten up on lap three, finding himself down in sixth place.

Hedger held this position for most of the rest of the race but two laps before the end the dreaded arm pump, caused by an injury he suffered earlier in the season, returned and he wasn't able to fight off two riders behind him, finishing in eighth place.

This is still a very good result for Hedger and he went one-and-a-half seconds faster than race one.

Hedger remains 12th in the championship with only one more round to go at Brands Hatch in Kent later this month.

Hedger said: "If you told me at the start of the weekend that I would have been on the front row for the main race I don't think I would have believed it.

"Things just kept improving all weekend and I felt really comfortable in both races on the Gearlink Kawasaki.

"I tried my best in race two to stay with the frontrunners but I've never ridden in a race with some of those guys and like they say it's tough at the top.

"I really enjoyed it though and it was great to be locked in a battle with them. I hope we can carry on moving forward like this to Brands and finish the year with two more solid results.

"Thanks again to the Gearlink Kawasaki team all my sponsors, especially 1st Choice Flooring."