YATE’S Luke Hedger had a terrific weekend at Cadwell Park at the biggest round of the MCE British Superbike Championship – that is, until it was time to race.

With thousands of spectators travelling to the circuit, fondly nicknamed the ‘Mini-Nurburgring’ every August, it was a chance for Hedger to shine on Sunday.

Hedger was doing well during the build-up to competition but his luck run out in Lincolnshire when he fell ill and took a few tumbles in the race itself.

He was on fire up to this point, putting in great times in both free practice sessions and getting fourth position in qualifying that placed him on the second row of the grid despite only getting in five laps due to unpredicted weather.

Hedger is part of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 class where, currently, Danny Buchan is leading the championship.

But Hedger awoke Sunday morning not feeling his best after coming down with a cold but he was determine to try and race.

Going into Sunday morning warm-up, he had not completed a lap before unfortunately crashing out.

Unhurt and unscathed, he re-focused for the race, with the team getting the bike back to the garage, they only had two hours to get the bike fit for the race.

The race was started by remembering the late Mark Fincham in a minutes’ silence before the roars of the 1000cc engines starting up and went on their green flag lap.

Hedger put on a great show although he got clipped on lap one making him lose a few places.

He made great progress throughout the race and, just as he made it pass fourth place and pulling closer to the lead group, he made a minor mistake on the 12th lap leaving him in the grass.

It was sad to watch but again unhurt, he is aiming to take the positives from the weekend.

Hedger said: “It’s maybe a strange thing to say, but apart from the crash, the team and I have been on the pace all weekend, and we had the podium in our sights.

“I was pushing a bit too hard in that final laps of the race.”