SIMON Andrews and Piranha Racing were in action for the first time last weekend when they contested the opening round of the British Supersports Championship on the factory-backed Yamaha R6.

Saturday's qualifying on the Indy Circuit at Brands Hatch was exciting with Andrews holding fifth position for most of the session before slipping to ninth by less than one tenth of a second.

Although there hasn't been much testing on the new machine, confidence was high for a race that took place in light rain at times that made the track quite greasy.

The Vale rider made a good start and settled down into the race pattern until, on lap three, pushing hard the front wheel lost grip on the marker line into Surtees and the front washed out and Andrews crashed to the floor.

"I'm really disappointed and it was my fault," he honestly admitted.

"I should have pulled the bike down tighter to miss the marker lines. The R6 was working superbly and the Dunlops had just reached their optimum rate.

"Brands Indy is a really short track and I was looking forward to a tight race."

Team manager Andy Colbourne added: "The sign of a good team is how it deals with problems as well as its success.

"In racing there are always problems or situations to be addressed. We are a very close team that will be producing the results in the not too distant future."