DARLINGTON rider Mark Burr claimed his first ever British Superbike Privateer Championship rostrum last weekend at Thruxton in Hampshire, only to be robbed of it an hour later when a rival team lodged a protest claiming he gained an unfair advantage when he overshot a corner.

It was harsh luck on the 20-year-old, who has been showing some impressive form on the Hawk Racing 750cc Kawasaki in recent weeks and was returning from injury after crashing out at Brands Hatch two weeks previously.

Burr had actually dislodged two vertebrae in the base of his spine in the crash, but the problem only came to light after a routine visit to the series physiotherapist at Thruxton on the Friday night prior to the race. Some careful manipulation rectified the situation.

Burr once again had the Toshiba-backed Kawasaki up inside the top ten and among the works bikes in the damp Saturday morning practice, before being relegated down to 16th at the end of the dry second qualifying session.

In some of the best racing witnessed in recent years and in front of a record 25,000 crowd, Burr scrapped it out in race one with the leading privateers before just missing out on his inaugural podium by less than half a second. He ended up 15th overall and sixth privateer.

Better was to come in race two when, after another race-long battle, Burr crossed the line 11th overall and claimed third place on the privateer podium. But his joy was relatively short-lived.

One of his close rivals complained that Burr had gained an unfair advantage during their hectic battle when he ran wide at the final Club chicane and reported the incident to the stewards.

The protest was upheld and Burr was docked two seconds, which relegated him to 13th overall and fifth privateer.

Despite his disappointment, Burr edged still further up the championship leaderboard and now lies in ninth place with another 14 races still to go. The next is back at Oulton Park in two weeks time.

Another local ace doing well at Thruxton was Hutton Rudby rider Russ Hodgson, who also claimed his best ever British Championship result with a stunning fifth place in the ultra-competitive 125cc event aboard the Tillston's Honda.

The 20-year-old electrical installer followed up his quadruple victory at a Cadwell Park club meeting recently with a brilliant performance in qualifying. He had the Castle Eden-backed machine on row two in seventh place before a warning flag infringement dropped him back two places to row three.

In the race itself, Hodgson got off to a great start to run with the leading bunch before a coming together with another rider at mid-distance nearly forced him to crash out. Although Hodgson stayed aboard, the impact tore a chunk out of his front tyre and his bike was shaking uncontrollably for the rest of the race.

Remarkably, Hodgson hung on and was closing in on the fourth-placed rider when the chequered flag came out. But his heroics were rewarded by promotion to 12th place in the championship standings at the mid-season point.

Dennis Hobbs from Guisborough made his comeback at Thruxton after missing the last meeting at Brands Hatch due to injury and the 18-year-old was soon back to form with a fine 11th place in the Supersport race.

Riding the Shaun Muir Racing Norwest Holst Honda, Hobbs qualified in 18th place before scrapping it out for a top ten place in the 18-lap race, held in hot sunshine on Sunday.

With his lack of race fitness, the youngster did well to bank another five championship points.

Claiming his first points of the year, Ingleby Barwick's Dave Gatenby overcame a spill in practice to finish 13th aboard the 250cc Joe Joe's Honda.

The lanky teenager was a victim in morning warm-up when another rider spilled oil on the track and he slid off. Undeterred, he bounced back to take a row five starting position.

From there, Gatenby slugged out a race of attrition to bag three championship points at the circuit where he broke his leg a few years ago.

l Northallerton's Steve Smith excelled in round two of the Loctite National RallySprint Championship, when he almost qualified his ten-year-old Walkers Garage / Tecno 2 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evolution for the grand final.

Against vastly more modern Group A and World Rally Car opposition, Smith was aiming to be one of the fastest eight to go through to the knockout stages. In fact, he comfortably qualified for the quarter-finals by setting the fourth-fastest time in the heats.

Having disposed of Simon Redhead (Subaru Impreza), Smith lined up head to head against the powerful Escort WRC of Scorton's Steve Petch in the semi-final.

Nothing could separate them initially, until Smith's ex-Carlos Sainz Lancia stopped momentarily coming out of the inside hairpin - the tightest and slowest corner on the 1.19-mile Silverstone RallySprint circuit. It was enough to give Petch the advantage and deny Smith a place in the final.

With soft compound 'Middle East spec' Michelin tyres, Smith went immediately into a third place run-off with Roger Duckworth (Subaru Impreza WRC). With diminishing grip, Smith tried hard but didn't have the traction he needed to challenge the Silverstone RallySprint lap record holder and eventually finished fourth.

A spin put Castleton's Ryan Champion out of contention, but the NSG Subaru Impreza driver gained the loudest support thanks to the cheers and foghorns from his enthusiastic sponsors and fans.

After problems in the opening round back in May, Champion was focused on doing well in this RallySprint event and was wringing the most out of his Group N Subaru Impreza with some spectacular driving.

He qualified for the semi-finals of the Group N category, but a small spin on the inside hairpin denied him a place in the final.

Champion's NSG team-mate, Steve Petch, enjoyed a successful day in his SG Petch Motorsport-prepared Escort WRC. He knocked out the reigning RallySprint champion, Steve Hill (Mitsubishi Lancer), in the quarter-finals, before beating Smith in the semi-finals.

In a closely-fought grand final, Petch finished a close runner-up to ex-American Le Mans racing driver Jonathan Finch (Subaru Impreza).

The next round of the Loctite National RallySprint Championship forms part of Silverstone's Historic Festival, when more than 60 modern and classic rally cars are expected to race.

Practice takes place on Saturday, August 25, with the finals the following day.