After his eye-catching top six finish in treacherous conditions at Cadwell Park they will have to reassess the situation.

Despite being up against factory run teams boasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment, Poole clocked the fastest lap on Sunday to issue a stark warning to the better known riders in the championship.

In qualifying he struggled and finished 14th. Then, in the five lap shoot-out for grid positions, he slipped further back to 20th because of a disastrous decision to race without wets.

But in the main race and in heavy rain he produced the form which won him a string of club and regional titles last year.

He clawed his way through the field to third in the 15 lap race before a lapse in concentration saw him leave the track and rejoin back in 10th spot. Undeterred, he fought back to eventually finish fifth, clocking the fastest lap of the race in the process with a time of 1 minute 39 seconds.

For Poole, from Percy Street, Northwich, it was a disappointing end to a frustrating weekend.

But he took solace from one fact.

"All the favourites for the championship were behind me. The four riders in front of me shouldn't pose too much of a problem in the dry," he said.

"I think my performance annoyed some of the factory teams. I turned up in a £100 van and beat them all."

Poole rides for the Stuart Jones Racing team. Jones himself is riding in the championship and finished 15th. Also in the team is teenager David Carson from Wincham.

He raced in the 600 race and finished 11th in his first race on a new bike. Meanwhile, in the Superteen 125 Challenge Hartford's Craig Jones, 14, made his crashed out on his debut for the TJW team. He did so whilst in third place with one lap to go but wasn't seriously hurt. The next round of the championship is at Mallory Park on April 11.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.