MOTORBIKE racer Tommy Bridewell was once again in blistering form at the British Championships at Snetterton in Norfolk at the weekend.

Fourteen-year-old schoolboy Tommy rides for UK Racing, the Malvern-based motorcycle road racing team looked after by enthusiast and ex-racer Nick Carpenter.

After setting a new record for the youngest ever rider to qualify on the front row at Silverstone two weeks ago, Tommy set two more records last weekend.

The first record was set during qualifying when he qualified in pole position out of the 33 rider grid. He did a staggering time of 1min 14.077secs, 0.66sec in front of his nearest rival Michael Wilcox, the youngest ever rider to gain pole position at a GP class British Championship event. The time was the fastest any British 125cc rider has been around the Snetterton circuit, the only other rider is Australian Casey Stoner, who holds the lap record at 1min 13.79sec set in 2002. Stoner is now a top Grand Prix rider with Aprilia.

The race on Sunday, one of the longest in the series, held in beautiful sunny conditions although very windy, over 18 laps of the 1.95m circuit saw Tommy in third position at the end of lap one but a freight train of riders all behind him.

By lap five Tommy had hit the front of the group but with only a 0.3 second gap on the group of six riders all within two seconds off him. By half distance it was still Tommy leading but Mike Wilcox now hard on his heels 0.1 seconds behind but these two were now pulling away from the rest of the field.

Tommy held on to the lead right up to the end of lap 17 when Wilcox went ahead but the pair of them now seven seconds in front of the third position rider. Neck and neck they both raced around the last lap under the chequered flag side by side neither rider knowing who had won until they returned to the pit lane.

The result went to Wilcox by 0.006 seconds, but Tommy went into the record books again with the youngest rider on the rostrum.