Gorleston 16-year-old Charlie King underlined his blossoming potential with a superb Triumph Triple Challenge podium at Snetterton – although his fellow home riders endured a painful weekend.
Norfolk bids for Triumph honours were strong with King's Lynn's Freddy Pett and King both well placed. Pett's challenge on his M40 Triumph/Dales Racing machine was strongest from the outset with a second and sixth on Saturday, while King's Saturday was more bumpy. He crashed out from fourth in race one, meaning a supreme effort to running for race two – where he finished fourth.
Things got better come Sunday, King's flying start taking him into the lead until he succumbed to pressure from championship leader Chrissy Rouse and ran wide at Nelson. But the youngster recovered to pocket a podium finish.
Pett, 21, was bogged down in his Sunday start but smoothly recovered to claim a useful fifth, keeping him five points ahead of fourth-placed King in the championship standings.
It was the toughest of weekends for Norwich's Team Tinklers. Sprowston's Jake Newstead could not relive his inspired Snetterton podium of 2011, as a sixth-lap crash in Saturday's opening National Supersport race left him rushed to hospital with a broken collarbone and ending his weekend.
Sunday was little better for Team Tinklers as Stoke Holy Cross' Richie Leech was ninth and flying in the National Superstock 600 Championship – only to fly off at Corum on lap six. Another hospital visit followed after he broke three bones in his hands, added to bangs on his shoulder, hip and heel.
On a day of repeated spills in the support series, the local luck didn't improve in the Superstock 1000s as Simon Andrews retired in the pits on lap two for Marham-based RAF Reserves Honda.
Meanwhile, the Ducati 848 Challenge saw Norwich duo Byron Beckett and Jack Keen deliver par for their 2013 course – SAS Racing Beckett's Saturday sixth was the peak.
The BSB support series return to action along with the Superbikes at Brands Hatch in a fortnight.
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