WORCESTER’S Liam Turberfield admitting suffering his worst meeting so far in rounds eight and nine of the North Gloucester Road Race Championship.

The St John’s rider tackled the main event at Castle Combe in the Phoenix open but had only raced at the Wiltshire track once before.

The chain snapped on his new Suzuki GSX-R 1000 in practice so he returned to his Yamaha R6 but struggled on dry tyres after a big rainstorm during a crash delay.

In a tough open qualifying session, Turberfield, 26, could only manage 36nd out of 42 after finishing early.

His lack of track time, after being unable to make the test day due to work, showed in finishing sixth in the pre-injection 700 race opener.

With the sun out, Turberfield returned to his fixed Suzuki for the first open race but was fortunate to avoid a big – and tragic – crash in front of him when popular Somerset rider Jer Thomas died.

Racing was postponed and Turberfield returned to his Yamaha for two contests the next day, finishing fifth in both.

He dropped to third in the championship table and admitted: “I could just about remember my way round the track and I thought I knew it better than I did.

“To come away with two fifth places was pretty good.

“It was my worst weekend of the season so far. I just hope I can get back to the front and challenge for the championship.”