ANDOVER teen motorbike racer Jake Archer moved up to second place in the Motostar Moto3 championship after a podium-filled weekend at Brands Hatch.

The 16-year-old scored a pole position and two podium finishes at the Kent track to move within touching distance of current championship leader Charlie Nesbitt.

Archer started well in Friday’s closely-contested free practice session, finishing in fifth despite a gap of just 0.620 between him and the fastest rider.

The racing continued to be tight throughout the first qualifying session, which also took place on Friday.

Although the skies had clouded over it remained dry and lap times began to drop.

Archer shaved half a second off his free practice time but in a very competitive session he remained in fifth place.

In second qualifying Archer was quick to match his lap times from the previous day and, having pulled into the pits for some adjustments, Archer returned to the session looking for further improvement.

It came right at the end of the session and the Andover ace secured pole position with a time of 49.531.

Rain began to fall as Archer lined up at the front of the grid for the first race on Saturday.

A flurry of activity commenced on the grid as riders debated their tyre selection just minutes before the green light.

Archer and his team gambled on a combination of a front wet tyre and a rear slick tyre, a risk that would later pay off.

The rain stopped almost immediately after the race had begun, leaving Archer with an advantage over most of the field.

However with Tom AmosBooth on a full set of slicks, the Andover rider could do little to stop his fellow rider pulling away, eventually settling for second place.

Archer looked to continue his successful start to the weekend of day two and was quickly off the line to take the lead and open up a three-second gap.

However, the City Lifting racer began to lose pressure in his rear tyre towards the end of the race and was unable to hold off championship leader Nesbitt, who overtook him with just three laps remaining.

After the race weekend, Archer said: “Obviously, I’m disappointed to have missed out on winning the second race and if we hadn’t had the tyre issue it could have been mine.

“I can’t be too disappointed because I go home with 40 points more than I came with and I’m now second in the championship.”