Wellington motorcycle racer Phil Webber returned to the track for the first time in over a year with North Glos Road Racing at Cadwell Park, writes Kerry Rawson.

He made the long journey to Lincolnshire, arriving late on Friday night on the Bank Holiday Weekend, to compete on his Kawasaki ZX10 in the Powerbike and Phoenix open classes. Having not raced since his dabble with endurance racing in France in the middle of last year, Saturday morning’s timed qualifying was always going to be a challenge for man and machine. Things did not go to plan, and after just a few laps of the circuit Phil’s chain snapped. Then, to make matters worse, while fixing his machine and changing tyres to go out on track for the next session, he injured his back, so decided to rest up for the rest of the day and see what Sunday morning brought.

Phil started at the back of the grid for Sunday’s races after not qualifying on Saturday but managed to make his way through the pack in the Phoenix open to cross the line in 12th place. Then, in the Powerbike race, he again went from the back up to 6th place.

This meant he started the afternoon races in 12th and 6th places respectively. In the Phoenix Open, one of the most competitive classes, it took Phil time to pass the riders ahead of him but he picked off six places to cross the line in sixth from 12th on the grid.

In the Powerbike class, Phil had a great battle with a rider ahead of him, which let the leading group get away, but once he passed he was catching the front runners when the checkered flag came out to finish in fifth.

Phil said he was happy with the results considering he had only been on his Kawasaki for about 40 minutes in over a year before Cadwell Park and could not wait to race again soon.