CHRISTIAN Elkin was crowned British GP 125cc champion for the second time at the Brands Hatch British Superbike meeting.

He rides for the Malvern-based e3 Motorsports team run by enthusiast Nick Carpenter.

He won the final round in tremendous style, demoralising the opposition by setting a new outright 125cc lap record during the 15-lap race in front of 25,000 spectators to secure his fourth win of the year and his sixth rostrum.

Christian, who has been riding for the last five rounds with a damaged hand, started from the front row of the grid on the e3 prepared Honda alongside his two main contenders for the title, James Westmoreland from Hull in pole position and Rainham's Rob Guiver. These three riders battled at the top of all four sessions during Friday and Saturday's qualifying.

It looked set for a real nail-biting finish to the season. All three riders made a reasonable start and at the end of lap one of the 2.61 mile GP circuit, the race was being led by Daniel Cooper but Guiver, Elkin and Westmoreland were all within 0.3 seconds.

On lap two Guiver had taken over the lead with Cooper second, Westmoreland third and Christian fourth but not separated by more than 0.35 seconds.

On lap three Christian, in very determined mood, had gone in front of Westmoreland and Cooper for second position to chase Guiver. Disaster then struck for Guiver when his chain broke and he was out of the race and the championship. Christian was now leading from Cooper, Brian Clarke, Sam Lowes and Westmoreland was now down in fifth and some 2.5 seconds behind leader Elkin and rapidly looking out of contention.

On lap five Elkin went over the line 1.8 seconds in front of Cooper and pulling away fast. Westmoreland, now down in sixth, pulled up with a mechanical fault, his championship now over unless Christian failed to finish.

For the next seven laps Elkin was the fastest man on the track, lapping just over one second outside the lap record and pulling clear of the field of 38 starters by over a second per lap.

In dominating form, he broke the lap record on the 14th lap and won the race in convincing style by 16.199 seconds from Lincolnshire rider Lowes in second and Dan Linfoot from Knaresborough in third. This gave Christian the British Championship title with 197 points to Westmoreland's 173 and Guiver in third on 168 over the 13 round series.

Christian's fastest lap at 1 minute 334.6 seconds, an incredible average lap speed of 99.25mph and 0.95 seconds faster than the next fastest rider, was only 8.1mph slower than the fastest Superbike lap during the British Superbike Championship races.

A brilliant end to the season giving Christian his fourth win of the season and his second British Championship, along with World Championship points scored at Donington Park, when he finished an incredible 11th position during his wild card ride in the British Grand Prix in July.

Christian is now making plans to move into the British 600cc Supersport class for the 2006 season and has had talks with prospective team owners but has not secured a ride as yet.