COPDOCK motorbike racer Kieran Murphy continued his fine form with a third place finish in the tenth round of the National Superstock Championship at Thruxton race track, Hampshire.

COPDOCK motorbike racer Kieran Murphy continued his fine form with a third place finish in the tenth round of the National Superstock Championship at Thruxton race track, Hampshire.

After the qualifying session around the high speed circuit, Murphy ended up on the front row of the grid in fourth position Murphy was confident of a good performance in the race despite being 1.4 seconds behind pole position man John Crockford in a time of 1 minute 18 seconds followed by championship leader Dave Jefferies and Chris Burns.

The race day's ten minute warm-up session proved invaluable after the Chrysalis Racing team made some small adjustments to the Suzuki GSXR 1000 after qualifying which meant the bike was half a second faster than before.

The race started at a terrific pace with Jefferies taking the lead early on and opening a gap on the rest of the field, led by Crockford with Murphy and Burns chasing him. After five of the scheduled 18 laps, the race was brought under control as the safety car was deployed after Phil Bradshaw crashed in the middle of the field, which saw his bike catch fire and was precariously placed on the edge of the track.

When the safety car pulled off, Jefferies took off at the head of the field with Crockford, Murphy and Burns in pursuit with the places swapping frequently over the next few laps.

Jefferies couldn't manage to break away at the head of the field as before and Crockford managed to slip past to take the lead which he managed to hold to the chequered flag with Jefferies just 0.1 seconds behind and Murphy 0.4 seconds behind Crockford.

Murphy said after the race the SPD/ Andy Pallot tuned machine was fantastic, but just couldn't manage to get past Jefferies and Crockford.

The third place result elevates Murphy to fourth position in the championship on 96 points behind Jefferies 180 points, Burns 150 points and Crockford on 138 points.

With only four rounds remaining, the championship heads for Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on August Bank Holiday weekend, where Murphy hopes to continue the good run of results.