FOUR is the magic number of Moto GP rider Jake Archer.

The Andover rider took to the world-famous Donnington Park track at the weekend in the latest phase of the British GP2 class championship.

Over the weekend, good showings in both races means that Archer now sits fourth in the overall standings in the British GP2 championship.

Archer showed his dedication to his craft by spending the majority of Friday getting familiar with the track, taking advantage of the free practice session and clocking the best lap time of 1:13.339.

Overnight the team got together to try and find more time. It proved a productive meeting.

On Saturday morning Archer was back out on track for the 30-minute qualifying session.

He continued to progress, managing to chop more than a second off his free practice pace and ended the session with a lap time of 1:12.010.

As the riders lined up on the grid for the first race of the weekend, there were spots of rain in certain sectors of the Leicestershire circuit.

However, there was not enough for the organisers to declare it a wet race and so the riders set off on their 20 lap Sprint Race.

Despite a warning of light rain in all sectors, during the race it remained a dry track.

Archer cut another more time off his laps during the Sprint Race, clocking a 1:11.770, and he crossed the finish line in fourth.

When it came to race two there had been some rain during the day, but a dry line was appearing on the track.

Some riders went for slick front and rear tyres whilst others remained on wets. Archer opted for a wet front and slick rear.

It proved to be a good choice in the conditions.

Starting in 20th on the combined grid, Archer continually increased his pace as he understood the track conditions.

He went on to set his three fastest times on the final laps of the race, crossing the line 15th overall and fourth again in the British GP2 class.

After the race, Archer said: “I feel really good after this weekend.

“Every race we are making progress, but this weekend I felt we made a big step forward.

“We are learning more about the braking zones and the bike set up. We cut loads off our lap time over the weekend, obviously before race two.

“Even then in those conditions we came away with a good result.”

Archer now sits fourth in the British GP2 championship standings with 66 points.