Palmer given the all clear after 130mph off.

The two Vivaldi Racing Bennetts British Superbike contenders Ben Wilson and Tristan Palmer suffered mixed fortunes in the set of two races at Thruxton on Sunday with Ben securing a 17th place finish to the first race and scoring a points finish with 15th in the second leg.

However, Tristan was not so lucky as he retired from race one and crashed heavily in the second encounter.

Qualifying did not go quite to plan resulting in Tristan being placed on row six of the grid with Ben right behind him on row seven.

"Thruxton is a very technical and undulating circuit which throws up problems at the best of times," commented team manager Richard Wilson. "Both Ben and Tristan struggled to find a good set up but have managed to qualify - albeit a bit further back than we would have hoped for. We are still in the development stage with the new bikes but are making steady progress in a highly competitive class."

Race one saw a lightning start from Ben Wilson who powered through from 28th to 16th on the opening lap. He moved up to 15th for a while before dropping back to complete the 22 laps just outside the points in 17th place.

The second leg saw the Boston rider circulating around 21st spot for the first few laps but he soon settled into the race and began to move steadily through the field to take the chequered flag in 15th to earn one championship point.

"We altered the settings for race two and the bike certainly handled better," said Ben. "At least we are going in the right direction and it is only a matter of time before we are challenging the front runners for position."

Tristan Palmer also got a good start and followed Ben through to hold 17th position for a while. But the bike soon began to suffer from handling problems causing Tristan to steadily drop back out of the top 20 before calling it a day and retiring into the pits at the end of lap eight.

Adjustments were made during the interval between races and Tristan began leg two ahead of his team-mate in 20th place. But it all went wrong for the 22-year-old rookie when he crashed in spectacular style at Church on lap nine.

Although Tristan took his time to get to his feet he was seen to walk away from the 130mph spill with relatively few injuries. It was first thought that he had broken a collarbone but on arrival at the medical centre for a check he was given a clean bill of health.

"Going into Church I was passed by another rider who didn't leave me too much room, I just caught his back wheel and off I came," said Tristan. "I am quite sore and my arm is swollen but thankfully it isn't broken so a few days rest will maybe see some improvement."

Ben is now in 14th place overall on nine points while Tristan is 21st with two points scored from the opening round at Brands Hatch.