HILL FIGHTS BACK WITH DOUBLE PODIUM AT THRUXTON

Doing just as he promised, Tommy Hill put in a spirited performance on his Swan Yamaha at Thruxton this weekend and catapulted himself up to fourth in the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship after finishing second in both races.
Hill signalled his intentions for the race with a stunning performance in changing conditions during qualifying. Setting the fastest lap of the weekend, he took pole position by almost half a second at a circuit where the pack had previously been tightly bunched.
In the first race on Sunday, Tommy led for the majority of the race until, with three laps to go, Ian Lowry squeezed past to take the win leaving Tommy in second place, ten seconds clear of the rest of the pack. In race two, from fourth on the grid on the inside of the front row, Tommy got a cracking start and led into the first corner. After overtaking Shakey Byrne for the lead into the final chicane at mid-race race distance, Tommy held this position until the last lap, when this time Josh Brookes made a move to take the win.
Hill said: "It was frustrating to be second in race one and we kept chipping away because when you are at the front you just don't know whether you need to be pushing harder or how close everyone else is. I didn't realise there was such a gap between myself, Ian and the rest of the pack. Towards the end of the race my grip started to fade and I was trying to stay up there but second place is points and podium credits which is what we needed.
Hill continued: "It was a hard decision for race two and I contemplated chang-ing between race one and two but we decided to go with what we knew as we didn't want to go for a massive gamble that could have ruined our race. I could see Shakey was losing grip and I can't believe I got robbed on the last lap for the win as that is twice today we have just missed out. Podiums are important though and after last weekend it was great to get back on the podi-um for Swan Yamaha. I think we will have more to come at Oulton Park next time out."