Market Rasen rider Phil Crowe cleans up at Donington Park

Fully recovered from his crash in the first round of the Thundersport GB1 Sportsman Elite championship, Crowe also took a third place in the second round of the series.

After qualifying the BMW on pole position, Crowe was lucky to escape a crash when other riders fell ahead of him, but he clawed his way through from sixth to take the lead on lap eight and the chequered flag by an advantage of just over a second from Paul McClung.

Crowe said: “I had to dig deep for the win. I was involved in two near-crash incidents with other riders and ended up down in sixth.

“Although I got back into the lead and won the race, I was not happy with lap times.”

Starting his second race on Sunday from pole position, Crowe completed the opening laps in fifth before passing Jamie Tibble on lap three.

Three laps later he overtook McClung to move up to third place which he held to the penultimate lap.

McClung pushed him back to fourth, but on the final lap, race leader Sen Bulpin crashed out, giving Crowe the final podium position.

In the final event, Crowe began from pole again, but was pushed back to fifth.

The top five edged away from the pack and Crowe fought it out for position within the group.

He moved up to fourth on lap four and a lap later passed David Brook for third. He gave chase to McClung and passed him on lap seven going on to take the lead on the penultimate lap and cross the finish line for his second win of the weekend, 0.4secs ahead of McClung.

“After the disaster at Brands Hatch we have finally got our season off to a good start,” he said.

“I equalled my personal best on a stock bike with 20 horsepower less than my previous bike so it just goes to show the changes are paying off.

“A big thanks to Arran Macleod and Phil Brown for helping over the weekend and a big, big thanks to all my sponsors that have stuck by me again. Without them, the show couldn’t go on.”