DESPITE the difficult wet conditions at Thruxton, Chipping Sodbury rider Luke Hedger consolidated his second position in the 2011 Sunoco British 125GP Championship standings by taking a tenth place finish.

Having achieved his second podium of the season last time out at Croft, the youngster was in confident mood, but the high speed airfield circuit at Thruxton posed a new challenge as this was the first circuit the series where he didn’t have the benefit of previous experience.

However, he soon got settled into his stride during free practice, reducing his lap time by over three seconds during the course of the two sessions.

Continuing to learn his lines, Hedger’s times tumbled further throughout the official qualification runs, and he was looking good to take his fourth consecutive front row start, but midway through final qualifying it was his turn to tumble rather than his lap time as he made an error on the high speed section at Village.

After returning to the pit lane, he anxiously had to wait and see where he would end up on the grid, but he only dropped two places to be able to line up in sixth position for the race.

There was another challenge for Hedger as he would had to contemplate his first wet British Championship race.

He initially found himself in a mid-pack position and crossed the line in 12th place at the end of lap one.

The difficult conditions caught out several riders during the 12 lap race, but Hedger rode consistently to finish in tenth place and collect some valuable points, which sees move to the top of the ACU Academy Cup rankings.

Hedger said: “I started the weekend at a disadvantage as I had not been to Thruxton before, so I had to get used to the track.

“First qualifying went well but the second qualifying was better as I reduced my lap time by two seconds and moved up to sixth position on the grid despite going grass tracking half way through.

“The race day was wet, which I don’t particularly like. I made a steady start but after a few laps I got into it.

“Towards the end of the race I was catching up with ninth placed rider, Chrissy Rouse.

“I tried to make a move at the last corner but just lost out.”

Round five of the Sunoco British 125GP Championship takes place at Knockhill over the weekend of June 17-19.