PIRANHA Racing and Simon Andrews endured a weekend of woe at Oulton Park with a high-side in qualifying and a collision with another rider ending the Cheltenham-based squad's race on the first lap.

The team was optimistic of a good result at the Cheshire circuit with Andrews setting the fastest time on race tyres in the first qualifying session.

Heading into the second session, the Vale rider was on target for a front row grid slot when he had a "moment" on the final lap spoiling his lap time.

"I was on it for the last lap but managed to nearly high-side the bike in the last section of the circuit," Andrews recalled.

Regain

"For a moment there I was heading straight into the Armco but managed to regain control of the bike. It was enough to spoil the lap time and I ended up ninth quickest."

Starting from the third row of the grid, Andrews entered the first turn at the front of a midfield pack of riders. Having barely completed half a lap he was hit by another rider. Picking his bike up he managed to make it back to the pits but the Yamaha R6 was too damaged to take any further part in the race.

Andrews said later that it was a case of more rotten luck in a season that just hadn't gone his way.

"I didn't know what happened! I was minding my own business when another bike came out of nowhere and just hit me," he said.

"It turned out that it was Rob Frost and he came up later and apologised which is fine but the net result is another DNF and it just hasn't been my year."