RICHARD Spencer-Fleet felt he had an excellent start to the new season in the Ducati Trioptions Cup at the Silverstone National circuit, writes CAMILLA TEMPLE-COURT.

With the short amount of track time Andover's Spencer-Fleet was qualified 20th which was only 0.2 off his personal best.

In the first race of the weekend Spencer-Fleet managed a good start held our own for first three laps.

Then on lap four unfortunately, he locked the bike up in a braking zone and had to run the exit road.

After turning around quickly and jumping the grass verge he was back in.

Having lost three places and dropped down to 23rd. The fight was now on to try and gain them back.

The bike was handling so much better than practice and within two laps he was back into 20th and then up to 19th the next lap.

On lap 13 the Andover rider lost a lap and so finished 20th in his first outing.

Having had a not too bad first outing the team decided to make a small adjustment to the set-up to try get us a better finish.

With a better start Spencer-Fleet made up three places into 19th on lap one.

The track temperature had also risen quite a bit from race one and it was filled with action with numerous overtakes and battles.

On lap 15 the Andover rider picked moved up to 17th and then on the second to last corner he picked up another place to finish in an amazing 16th.

This was a great ride and Spencer-Fleet finished just 1.2 seconds off 15th and the points.

Spencer-Fleet said: " This was an awesome race! One of the season goals to get points was ever so close in the first round. It felt like a great achievement.

He added: "These results in the first round are mega and puts us in a good place for the season ahead. I’m ever so grateful to all the team behind me this weekend, those that came and supported me, and to all my sponsors.

Now there is less than two weeks before the next round which is at Oulton Park and the omens are very good.