SIMON Andrews, the 19-year-old Wickham-ford teenager, opened his account in the European Superstock at the world famous Monza circuit in Italy last weekend on board his Team UCL Honda Fireblade.

Monza is the fastest track on which the youngster has competed so far. The famous circuit, with its long fast straights, meant special attention to top end gearing was uppermost in the teams requirements.

The Fireblade, rated at 954cc, is not quite as powerful as the other 1000cc machines now competing in the European Superstock, but the handling of the machine certainly makes up for the lack of cubic capacity.

Qualifying on the Saturday was made difficult by the weather conditions after a week of rain and light drizzle which continued through most of Saturday until late afternoon, when Andrews qualified in 22nd position.

The decision on final selection for gearing was not made until race day warm-up.

Chief mechanic, Ian Cook, made some minor last minute adjustments and, after his pre-race briefing from Peter Jennings, the Vale rider made his way to the grid.

Thirty of Europe's up and coming young race stars headed for the first bend. Three riders tumbled in what looked like a scene from the Grand National!

Andrews was quick to capitalise on the mayhem and moved up to 14th.

Two laps later and a further crash resulted in the race being stopped. It now became a two-part race and Andrews restarted from 12th place on the grid.

Following a blistering start the youngster maintained his position for most of the remaining eight laps.

As the lap times got quicker through fuel burn off, he bettered his qualifying time by two and a half seconds, running a little over two seconds a lap slower than the Superstock lap record.

He finished with a superb scrap with Swedish rider Freddy Papunen over the closing stages and the British star pipped his Scandinavian rival at the finish.

But, with the combined times of the two-part race, the Swede was placed ahead of by a mere three tenths of a second.

Andrews and the whole team was delighted with his finish and is now placed 14th in the Championship and holds the honour of top British rider.

He is back in action again at Silverstone this week end and in the World Superbikes on Saturday and Sunday, May 25 and 26.