Buxton, from Cuddington, finished fourth in his first race in the Knockhill meeting after qualifying in sixth place. But in qualifying for his second race he crashed into the gravel track and was unable to rejoin qualifying because of a stubborn marshall. It left him facing the prospect of starting the race in 27th place.

He said: "I couldn't believe the marshall wouldn't red flag the race. I lost my temper but there was nothing I could do."

But in the race itself Buxton got a flying start, eating up three places by the first corner. He finished 10th. Despite a low scoring position, he boosted his championship standing.

Daniel explained: "All of the other drivers in the top six had disappointing races, so I actually moved up a little. There is very little to choose between the top six. The next meeting is at Brands Hatch on Bank Holiday weekend, then we go to Oulton Park before the end of season meeting at Silverstone. I need to get a couple of top five finishes at Brands to keep me in contention before Oulton."

It is at his home track of Oulton, where he clinched last season's Fiesta XR2 title, that Daniel hopes to boost his championship chances with a victory.

Daniel's main aim though is the Fiesta Junior title.

He is currently leading the race for the award, which includes a testing contract with the Ford Mondeo team.

TIM Poole from Percy Street was less successful on his Honda 600 motorbike at Oulton Park.

He had to drop out of his Formula 400 race whilst in fourth place due to a broken crank shaft.

Poole is hoping to solve the problem in time for the final round of the Tonfanau Club Championship over the Bank Holiday weekend.

A SIMILIAR fate befell teenage sensation Craig Jones from Hartford. Jones, whose ride in the Aprilia Superteen 125 Championship next season was confirmed last week, was in action in Rome.

He was racing in the European Senior A class Mini-Moto Championship a week after winning the England European round.

But an accident on lap 20 of 30 brought a premature end to his European adventure, which was made possible thanks to help from K & L Freight, Northwich.

Jones will be featured on The Basement next Monday night at 10pm. The programme is transmitted on the Bravo Channel on satellite.

BACK at Oulton Park, Robert Hornby was managing to complete a race on his Kawasaki 400.

Hornby, from Delamere, claimed two 13th place finishes in the Formula 400 Division One races.

He clocked times of 11mins 32.8secs and 11mins 33.5secs in the two six lap races.

IN the Formula Two sidecars at Oulton Northwich's pairing of Harvey and Thomas were eighth from 25 starters, 17 seconds behind the winnert.

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