Alistair Seeley crashes twice and Oliver Barr impresses as Binch Racing head towards season finale

Both Alastair Seeley and Oliver Barr suffered crashes in qualifying with significant damage to Seeley's bike, and he then suffered another crash in the Feature Race to complete a weekend to forget

Seeley sits sixth in the British Supersport Championship positions on 225 points while rookie Barr is 20th on 44 points and a team spokesman said: “Fourth in the Championship is still within our grasp for Alastair.

“This would be a fantastic achievement in only our second year in the class.

“For Oliver in his rookie year, we would be delighted to see him inside the top 20, so we will be going all out to get him there.”

Seeley finished 10th in the second qualifying race and Seeley 20th.

Seeley was away cleanly in the 10-lap Sprint Race and in the early laps managed to take two places and progressed to eighth place.

As he got to eighth he was surrounded by other machines and try as he might, it was hard to gap them and make a charge for the riders further on.

Barr made a real effort to get stuck in from lap one and was making passes at every opportunity. Despite there being a number of tangles and fallers around him, he managed to keep his head and bring the bike home in 14th, with six places gained.

Both riders improved on their previous lap times in Saturday's sprint race so they got bumped up the starting grid a little for the 16-lap Feature Race, Seeley starting from ninth and Barr started from 18th.

Both got away cleanly and Barr saw an early opening into Redgate as a rider trying to hold that line ran wide and forced others to the outside of the track on the brakes.

He seized his opportunity and dived up the inside to take 10th place, from 18th.

Seeley got comfortable behind the leading pack but at the start of lap 10 started to make his move.

He was jockeying for ninth at this point but he knew he had the rubber to push on.

At the start of lap 13 he was leading the group in sixth place, ahead of his championship rivals.

Unfortunately, as he exited the Melbourne loop he encountered a wheelie which he tried to handle. But as the front made contact with the tarmac, it tucked and forced a crash for a very bitter end to a very hard weekend.

Barr dropped back a little and was in the middle of a great five-way battle with some seasoned competitors.

He rode a superb race and gave as good as he got once again managing to avoid some hairy encounters he crossed the line in 14th - a fair return for his efforts and more championship points added to his account.