Lee Johnston opened up his British Supersport Championship campaign with a pair of second place finishes at Silverstone on board his Ashcourt Racing Yamaha.

The Maguiresbridge rider finished third in last season’s championship after a strong closing half of the season and he carried that form through to this season’s opening race, declaring himself happy with the results.

“It was really good,” he said.

“It was a really solid weekend because at this stage of the season all you really want is to be near the front and get some solid points on the board.

“It would have been lovely to win but we just didn’t have the pace. I was really happy though with the bike, the team and everybody. It was a really good start to the year.”

Reigning British Supersport Champion Jack Kennedy started the defence of his title with two race wins, but Lee felt he was in a position to challenge the pace setter in race one before a mechanical issue spoiled his chances of a late overtake.

“We had a technical issue with the bike with a couple of laps to go and we managed to just get it over the line,” he revealed.

“We were lucky that we had a big gap behind me to be honest.

“In race two I dropped back. I just didn’t have the feeling that I wanted so I dropped back a little bit but it’s still positive. We got a new lap record on Saturday, so it shows that we have got some speed in the bike.”

For the first time in two years the road racing season looks set to go ahead following the easing of the pandemic restrictions, and Lee is determined to tackle both road and circuit based events despite the hectic nature of a packed schedule.

“We plan to contest the whole British Championship season definitely,” he said.

“Who knows what might happen after the TT, but in my head right now I want to commit and have a good go at doing the full British championship. This is the first year we are geared up to go back road racing whereas before it was let’s just be in the British championship, so there has been a lot of other stuff going on in the background and we are super busy so it’s extra nice to get good results with all that going on.”

Lee will return to the track in just over a week as the second round of the British Championship takes place at Oulton Park from April 30 until May 2.