Michael Rutter moved within eight points of series leading John Reynolds in

a dramatic sixth round of the THINK! British Superbike Championship at

Thruxton.

The HM Plant Honda rider grabbed the victory in the opening race, in

bizarre circumstances - Sean Emmett, riding the MonsterMob Ducati looked to

have the points in the bag as he neared the finish line.

But, as he punched the air and waved to the crowd, his bike swerved out of

line, Emmett, high out of his seat managed to hold on, but dropped back to

third place as Reynolds also moved ahead.

"It was a stupid thing to do, especially after all of the years of

experience I've got under my belt - I was just so mad with myself that I

had to go out and do something about it in the second race," Emmett

explained.

He took his second victory of the season in that race, which developed into

an absolute thriller, with constant positional changes, with Rutter denied

a daily double by just 0.783 seconds.

The second race, however was marred, when Reynolds, duelling for third

place with his Rizla Suzuki team-mate Gregorio Lavilla crashed heavily out

of the race - the twice former champion suffering a broken collar-bone.

Earlier, the first race had to be stopped when Dijon Compton crashed at

the Complex on the opening lap. The rider, uninjured hit the straw bales,

but his bike cleared the barrier, hitting two spectators.

Race Director Stuart Higgs explained "the accident occurred when a

riderless motorcycle breached the safety fencing and collided with

spectators - two members of the crowd received injuries - both casualties

have been taken to hospital as precautionary measure but their injuries are

not thought to be life threatening."

The race was re-started, providing intense duelling among the front-running

pack, with the victory, on aggregate time over the two parts going in

unusual circumstances to Rutter.

ends