Highs and lows for Vivaldi at Thruxton.

After his first victory for the Vivaldi team at a wet Donington Park, Scott Smart had hoped for a good run out at Thruxton, unfortunately that was not to be. Still hurting from his big moment at Donington that left him with a damaged calf, he then low-sided at 150mph during qualifying.

"It's been a pretty tough weekend especially after the high of last week. We've got a reasonable set-up in the dry in practice but not quite quick enough so we stuck qualifying tyres in. We'd just stuck a fresh qualifier in and the session got red flagged," said Smart, "So we sat around in the pits for a while before we went out again on a pretty steady out-lap so not to overheat the tyre. The second corner I went into on the hot part of the lap, I lost the front and destroyed the bike."

Smart had to run his number two machine in the race and brought it home in eleventh and tenth scoring points despite being in pain from his injuries. "I skinned my arms which are not too bad but I badly twisted my knee, once my adrenaline is going it's not too bad to ride with these injuries but it has made me really weak," explained Smart "It's been sort of frustrating but I'm quite happy to do as well as I did under the circumstances."

Luck was also out for Vivaldi's local rider, Ollie Bridewell, who suffered technical problems which developed into an engine misfire and forced him to retire to the pits. He pinned all his hopes on race two, unfortunately he crashed out on lap two at the notoriously fast Church corner - he was lucky to walk away from his crash with only superficial wounds.

Ben Wilson lost his record of scoring in every race so far this season as his Dunlop-shod Suzuki suffered a similar technical problem to that of team-mate Bridewell on lap six of the first race. With the problem quickly addressed during the intervening period, Wilson made his customary flying start from twenty second on the grid to quickly put him in contention for an impressive thirteenth place finish as he battled with five other riders right to the chequered flag.

Vivaldi Racing Supersport rider Tommy Bridewell also suffered a similar fate to his older brother Ollie this weekend. A few set-up problems saw him uncharacteristically qualify down in twenty second place. Unfortunately his race was short lived and he was forced to retire with technical problems after the first lap.

Team crew chief Norris Farrow admitted "This weekend has been pretty fraught. A couple of the bikes struggled with mechanical and electrical problems that unfortunately escalated into a misfire during the first race. Scott got himself into a rhythm and rode a spirited race despite his injuries to finish in eleventh in race one and a good battle for tenth in race two."