BIKES: Nutt shines at Snetterton

The NuttTravel.Com/Dawn/T&G rider had been in fine form throughout the weekend around the 1.95-mile circuit and he converted his strong qualifying form into an excellent race result, his first top ten finish of the season.

Marty's weekend got off to a fine start in free practice on Friday when he placed 11th and 15th in the two free practice sessions around the 1.92-mile circuit and, with a number of improvements made to the machine, he felt confident of improving his times during Saturday's qualifying sessions.

Problems with the track surface meant that just one qualifying session took place but after placing 11th once more in the final free practice session, a brilliant lap of 1m07.556s in the 30-minute qualifying period saw Marty take fifth place on the grid, just 0.561s off pole position and ensuring he would head up the second row of the grid.

Sunday saw warm conditions for the 20 lap race and a solid start saw Marty complete the opening lap in seventh place although in the inevitable bumping and barging for positions in the opening few laps he was shuffled back to ninth a couple of laps later.

When James Westmoreland crashed out on lap four he was back up to eighth although he was back down to ninth just a lap later when Glen Richards came by.

For a brief moment it looked like Marty was going to lose touch with the group battling for fifth position but he was soon on the back of Richards and up to eighth at half race distance.

Fifth place was anyone's and the result could have gone either way but, on lap 16, Marty overtook Billy McConnell for seventh and it was here where he finished for nine excellent championship points.

The result means that he's now up to 13th place in the Championship table.

Marty said afterwards: "It's been a great weekend for me and the changes we made to the bike on Friday allowed me to make the jump up to the group of riders who've been quicker than me all year.

"Qualifying fifth was a huge boost for my confidence going in to the race and although I made an 'ok' start, I had to make sure I didn't lose contact with the riders in front sogot on to their back wheel as soon as I could.

"I felt really strong through the first two corners and also through the final chicane so I utilised my advantage there to close right in and was able to run quite comfortably with people like Billy McConnell, who've been at the front, and winning races, all year."

"It was nice to be able to mix it with them and put a few passes in on people that I feel I'm capable of running with all the time. I've got to say a big thanks to Andy for all his work on the set-up of the machine and also to John for his work on the electronics and we've now got a package that's working really well.

"I've proved today that I can run in the top eight and race with some of the leading guys in the Championship so I'm firmly looking at getting these kinds of results between now and the end of the season."

Marty now has a three week break before his next meeting with the eighth round of the British Supersport Championship taking place at Brands Hatch, Kent over the weekend of 6-8 August.