Third place for Cal

Cal Cooper bagged third place in the BSB 600 Superstock championship after a day of missed opportunities at Silverstone on Sunday.

Cooper, 17, riding the CF Motorsport R6 Yamaha, was passed by the new championship leader on the final sweeping right hand corner just before the flag and finished 0.4 seconds in arrears.

Cooper, backed by IoM Sport Institute, Paul Dedman Performance and Dean Teversham Roofing of Dorset, also missed the last lap flag during a titanic struggle with Bristol’s Luke Hedger, the 2012 British 125 champion.

Cooper went under the lap record in grabbing his fourth successive pole position, the lanky Ramsey rider looking good to notch what would have been a hat-trick of victories.

He hole shot the race and led comfortably on the first lap but the action was brought to a halt by a red flag after a multiple pile up and subsequent blaze behind him at Club Corner.

With a 90-minute wait for the re-start, Cooper was again anxious to break the field in a race reduced by three laps, which he managed to do, leading for the first three circuits before Hedger got by - smashing the lap record in the process.

Cooper hit back three laps later and grabbed the lead  at Stowe, not realising it was the penultimate circuit, and with just a mile to go was a little unguarded at Luffield at the entrance to the finish straight and Hedger nipped up the inside to clinch victory.

Said Cooper: ‘I was gutted to lose - I just didn’t see the flag and thought I had time to work with. However, I’m up to third in the championship with a round to go. At the start of the season I didn’t think I’d be upset to be second.’

The Manx rider, who has attracted a great deal of interest but is in need of a major backer, added: ‘A big, big thank you to Craig Fitzpatrick for all his help and advice – he’s brilliant and the bike is mint too thanks to the work put in by team personnel Robbie Moore and Em ‘Spanners’ Weaving.’