MOTORCYCLE RACING: THE final round of the Bennetts British SuperBike Championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday saw Victor Cox, from Staverton, riding for STP racing on the Yamaha R1000 in the Metzler National Superstock Championship.

And once more he was trying to get to grips with the ever changing weather conditions.

Friday's practice went to plan with warm dry weather. Saturday's weather was a mixture of temperatures but the team decided on a dry set-up for qualifying and Cox was able to get a respectable 15th and would start from the fourth row.

Race day saw all of their preparations go out of the window as the forecast was rain, so, once more the team mechanics were playing with set-ups that they hoped would give Cox as good a chance as possible and maybe some more championship points.

But more bad luck was on the way, as the riders lined up for the start as Cox, due to late arrival on the grid, was forced to start from the back, a long way from where he had qualified.

Cox made a good start and by the time he had reached Druids he had made up several places and by the third lap he was in a strong 20th.

Things were looking good and the team were hopeful of a top ten position. It all looked to be going to plan when light rain caused the race to be red flagged and as the rain fell so did any chance of getting a finish higher than 16th just when he knew a good result was there for the taking.

Cox has finished the season in 18th place with 20 points.

Stewart Rodgers, the race team organiser, said the team were now looking forward to getting more powerful bikes for the 2007 season and testing was going to be somewhere warm' He added: "Sponsorship is the big factor these days and we hope to be able to secure more before the next season starts."