YATE'S Luke Hedger fought a hard race to secure a position on the podium for the third time this year.

He finished third at Knockhill to lie third in the Sunoco British 125GP Championship overall standings and second in the ACU Academy cup rankings.

In qualifying, Hedger continually increased his times and for most of qualifying one he was running in 12th position.

However, towards the end of the session he put in some really quick laps, which put him on provisional front row in fourth position, knocking over six seconds off his time from the day before.

Qualifying Two was much the same but Hedger struggled to get a faster time and started in a respectable ninth place on the third row on his first appearance at Knockhill.

In the race, Hedger got a good start off the line, staying in ninth position, enabling him to produce some really good consistent times.

By lap five he had moved his way through the pack to fifth place but the race was then stopped due to a crash, and Hedger had to do it all over again, this time starting from fifth position.

As part 2 of the 15 lap race got under way, he dropped back two places until lap two when he had to take evasive action to avoid fellow rider Lee Jackson as he crashed.

Hedger had to take to the grass which cost him time ,but he soon regained his composure to make his way back up through the field and by lap four he had regained fifth position.

He stayed in this position for nine more laps, constantly achieving low 56 second lap times.

On lap 14 Hedger managed to take the 4th spot from Tarren McKenzie.

On the same lap Andy Reid had to retire from first place due to a mechanical problem which moved Hedger up another position.

He said: “I was really happy to get back on to the podium this weekend, even more so as this is another new circuit to me.

“I’m hoping for the same or better results for the next round in two weeks time at Snetterton 300.

“I’m a little apprehensive as they have recently changed the track and I was used to the old circuit, but I can’t wait to get back on the bike.” The next round will be on July 1-3 at Snetterton 300 circuit, with his race being shown on Sunday, July 3 at 2.15pm live on Eurosport 2 on the mce British Superbike programme.