A WIN and second place at Cadwell Park last weekend, saw Andover rider Jake Archer opened up a lead of 50 points over his nearest rival Storm Stacey in the Hel Performance British Motostar Championship.

In qualifying on Saturday morning. The 32 bikes split between the GP and standard classes shared the 2.2-mile circuit.

Archer was unable to match his best time from free practice and had to settle for second on the grid after his teammate took pole position.

His other main championship rival Stacey qualified down in eighth.

The first of the two 12 lap races was on the Saturday afternoon.

Archer's teammate took the early lead with 18-year-old running third.

He quickly worked his way into second by the end of the next lap.

On the third lap, Archer took over the lead of the race and stayed there for the next six consecutive laps.

Stacey had worked his way from eighth on the grid to third overall and was beginning to close on the two riders ahead.

With the riders circulating for the 10th time there was a crash just after the mountain section as the riders go towards Hall Bends and the race had to be red-flagged immediately.

The result was taken back to the last full lap which was the only one of the last six Archer had not led, so he had to settle for second.

Race two saw Stacey take the holeshot before Durham briefly took over.

However, by the end of the first lap Archer was out front.

He had hoped that he might be able to escape at the front but his teammate had other ideas.

The two City Lifting riders broke away from the rest of the field, but Archer was having to work really hard to maintain Jack Scott behind him. Lap after lap Scott was almost glued to Archer’s back wheel as the two opened a gap of over three and a half seconds on Storm Stacey.

Unfortunately, there was another red-flag incident in race two after eight laps and this time the Andover rider took the win.

The result means that Archer now has 268 points and has increased his lead from 37 points to 50.

His next race will be this weekend, as Archer has secured a wildcard entry in the Moto3 class of the World MotoGP Championship at Silverstone.

Archer said: "It was disappointing that the races didn’t go the full distance but at least everyone was safe at the end.

"I’ve got a 50-point lead and that’s what the aim is. It’s all good. I can’t wait until next week, racing in MotoGP and for that I must thank City Lifting, Kovara Projects and Ryan Saxelby for making it all happen.”