DANNY Buchan had another tough weekend at round seven of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Thruxton Circuit.

The Be WiserKawasaki rider, from Burnham on Crouch, was unlucky to crash out of a potential podium finish in race one and suffered a tyre issue in race two and was forced to retire.

He was eager to make amends for missing both races at Brands Hatch after he was involved in a crash at Druids on the opening lap at his home venue.

He suffered a blow to the head which kept him sidelined on the advice of the medical team.

Buchan demonstrated his riding ability attacking the very fast and bumpy Hampshire circuit and made it through to the final qualifying session.

He started the opening 20-lap race from ninth place on the second row of the grid only 1.118 seconds slower than double race winner, and now current series leader, Josh Brookes.

In the second race Brookes also broke the existing lap record set in 2006 by Gregorio Lavilla.

Buchan got a steady start but dropped back to 11th after the opening lap and was working his way back through the field to tenth when the race was red flagged due to an oil spill.

On the restart, Buchan held ninth position and was soon locked in a huge struggle for a podium place passing Shane Byrne into fourth spot on lap ten.

He pushed on contesting places with local title contender Tommy Bridewell but on the last lap lost the front end into the Club Chicane and was unfortunate to crash out, taking the luckless Bridewell with him.

Buchan started from sixth place for race two and was fighting for a possible top ten place but the Be Wiser Kawasaki ZX-10R was suffering with loss of grip and he was forced to retire on lap 12.

Buchan said: “This year has been so frustrating and I really thought we might turn a corner at Thruxton.

“I felt really strong during the practice sessions and was eager to get a couple of good results from the weekend.

“Once again that wasn’t to be, I felt good on the re-start of race one and thought I might be able to battle and fight for a podium.

“We were all dicing for position and all going for the same piece of Tarmac, sadly I tucked the front and crashed out and collected Tommy (Bridewell) in the process, this was a mistake and no rider ever wants to take another rider out.

“I wanted to get a good race under my belt in race two but just had no grip from the start.

“I tried my hardest to stay out there but didn’t want to crash again so brought her home in one piece.”