Keith Farmer secured his best points scoring weekend of the season after he claimed sixth and eighth place in the latest round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch. Josh Elliott was also among the points, but two 15th placed finishes did little to turn around his recent disappointing run of results. The pair are now level in the Championship standings, tied in 11th place with a third of the season completed.

Farmer was delighted to get two top ten finishes under his belt, and he is hoping that he can continue his upward rise.

“To come away with a sixth and an eighth and the best points of the year so far for us, it is all looking positive,” he said.

“We are going the right direction and making good progress with the bike.”

On a weekend of challenging weather conditions Keith struggled with the bike set up in the early stage of the weekend, but by the start of race one the TYCO BMW was competitive with the front runners.

“We were getting lost with the set up a bit, but on Saturday we made a breakthrough and it turned out not so bad,” he revealed.

“We got a good start and settled into the race. For the first six to eight laps in the wet we had very little feel with the rear grip and we struggled a bit to go forward. Once the water started to go and we got more grip we started to make some progress. We got back to sixth which I was happy with as it was the best result of my season.”

He maintained his good form on the dry track in race two, despite some late mechanical problems.

“We were starting sixth on the grid and I got a decent start and settled in behind Danny Buchan and Glen Irwin,” explained Keith. “Buchan got past Glen and I knew I needed to get past him right away. Luckily he made a mistake and ran wide, but Hickman came past me and my teammate Christian came past me. I settled in behind him and I knew he had a bit more pace, but I was comfortable. All of a sudden with six laps to go my clutch started playing up. Every time I was going back a gear the real wheel would bounce. I was on the back of Hickman at that stage but unfortunately when you have a little issue that like it unsettled my rhythm and I couldn’t commit to every corner. When you lose a tenth here and there it soon unfolds on you, so we settled for our eighth position.”

While Farmer’s season is on an upward trajectory, Josh Elliott continues to struggle to recapture the form that saw him snatch a race win on the first weekend of the season. The Ballinamallard rider has struggled to get a bike set up that he is comfortable with, and qualifying was another frustrating session that saw him start race one back in 20th place on the grid. The first race started in the wet, and Josh had a great start as he surged through the pack to move into 14th spot. As the race progressed the track started to dry, and with Josh’s tyres struggling to cope with the change in conditions he slipped back to 18th. With two laps remaining however he fought back, overtaking Truelove and Ray before grabbing the final points scoring position on the last corner.

There was less drama in race two, with Josh starting from 14th, and maintaining his position in the middle of the pack to claim a second 15th place finish of the weekend.

“It was a bit of a challenging day weather-wise,” admitted Josh. “Race one was mixed conditions. The race started wet and we knew it was going to dry up. Of course, it ended up drying pretty fast and we just struggled with grip. The wet tyres didn’t really hook up well in the wet and then ended up spinning a lot in the dry, but we came away with a good 15th. Race two was bone dry but we just struggled in a few areas, similarly to Donington. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to really look at those before Knockhill so we can arrive with an improved package. Obviously we’re looking to get ourselves back up the pecking order really and get some more points because the team have been working mega hard and we’re not getting the results for one reason or another.”