Replacing injured Stewart Easton on board the Kawasaki ZX10R, the Berkhamsted rider was drafted into the MSS Discovery team after a long spell spent away from the Superbike track.

Of late James has been a regular fixture in the commentary box at such events, but the race at Mallory Park in Leicestershire gave him then opportunity to prove his worth to the Discovery team.

He qualified in a respectable 17th out of 26 riders for the first race, with less than a second separating the top 18 places. After a clean start, some aggressive riding saw the 34-year-old make his way up to 13th place by the 12th lap.

But disaster struck on Edwina's corner—a tight right-hander— when James, on unfamiliar tyres, crashed out of the race.

But Race two presented a chance for redemption. On a wet track he again made an impressive start and worked his way up to 10th place by the sixth lap.

But, having chosen to use full wet weather tyres, he was at a disadvantage when the track began to dry out, and found himself slipping down the pecking order and ended up finishing in 15th place.

With Easton expected to be out of action for some time to come, James will be hoping he has done enough to secure a start in the next race on July 20.