Second place at Snetterton as Hucknall ace Richard Cooper chases leader

Cooper is lying second in the championship standings just half a point separating him from series leader Edoardo Colombi.

Cooper said: “I am trying my best and it’s clear to see that if I wasn't here it would be a one horse race at the moment.

"I am giving that bike everything I have got at the moment, I feel like this was one of the best races I have ever ridden and I have been at it 22 years. I left nothing on the line there.”

Riding the PHR Performance Triumph Daytona 660, Cooper suffered a crash during qualifying in wet conditions on the Saturday and ended up starting Sunday’s race from the second row of the grid alongside Colombi.

The rain had cleared up from Saturday and it was dry and sunny for the start of the race and, as the lights went out, Cooper got a swift start ahead of Colombi.

But the young Italian swept past him and Thomas Strudwick to take the lead by the end of the first lap.

On lap two Cooper managed to get ahead but Colombi was quick to retaliate and once again lead by the end of the lap.

Lap three went the same way with Cooper taking the lead at the last corner and Colombi fighting back on the straight.

The pair pulled away from Strudwick who could not keep up with the fast pace and dropped back.

But the race was on between the top two and the battled lasted through the remainder of the 11-lap affair with the lead exchanged between the two on nearly every lap.

It all came to a head on the final lap with Colombi just ahead of Cooper and on the dash to the flag Colombi took the win by 0.064s from Cooper, who broke his own lap record set earlier in the race, setting a time of 1m 57.324s - 91.09mph.

Columbo now extends his series lead to 3.5 points over Cooper with the next round at Brands Hatch this weekend.