Lee Johnston grabbed his third British Supersport race win of the season at Donnington Park, but a crash in Race Two all but ended his hopes of winning the 2021 British Supersport Championship.

The Ashcourt Racing rider closed the gap to the series leader with a dominant win in wet conditions in the sprint race on Saturday and he looked set to keep the pressure on Jack Kennedy with another high points-scoring finish in Sunday’s feature race.

But, with the finish line in sight, he was taken out by another rider as his bike and championship hopes slid off into the gravel.

“On Sunday we were running second and got hit and taken out, and that has ruined the championship. Unless something really bad happens Jack and he can’t ride or something, and I can’t see that happening,” said Johnston.

“To be honest, if we calmed down and looked at the season as a whole, we should be really chuffed with the fact that we were even in there fighting for the championship. It has been a good year.”

Lee has been the in-form rider in the Supersport class in the final quarter of the year.

From fifth place in the championship he had clawed his way up to third before the penultimate meeting of the season at Donnington Park.

In heavy rain and slippery conditions, his title charge was in full flow as he dominated the sprint race.

“We had a good result on Saturday to get the win,” he admitted.

“It was very wet but we were in control.

“We had a fair lead although I had a decent high side with about three laps to go, but landed back down on the tank. That cut the gap a little, but the next Supersport bike was six or seven seconds back, so we had a decent gap.”

A repeat victory in the feature race on Sunday would have increased the pressure on Championship leader Kennedy, and it looked as though Lee would claim a large haul of points as he held second spot entering into the final lap of the race.

With just two corners remaining, however, the Maguiresbridge man was taken down by another rider, and his non-finish has left him with a mountain to climb on the final race weekend of the season at Brands Hatch in ten days’ time.