Royston racer Luke Mossey made a strong start to the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Championships at Silverstone at the weekend.

The 26-year-old finished in a fantastic fourth place in the first race of the 2019 campaign and followed that up with sixth in race two to claim 23 points from the opening round.

And that leaves Mossey sitting in fourth place in the series ahead of round two at Oulton Park on the weekend of May 4-5.

Mossey took to social media to show his delight, posting: “Great weekend, really happy to come away with 4th in the championship!

“Now we got something to build on. Massive thank you to my @omgracinguk team on to the next. @officialbsb.”

Having qualified fifth fastest, Mossey just missed out on a podium in a drama-filled first race of the season, as McAMS Yamaha team-mates Jason O’Halloran and Tarran Mackenzie went head-to-head fort the victory.

An earlier crash involving the Quattro Plant JG Speedit Kawasaki pairing of Glenn Irwin, Ben Currie and rookie David Allingham led to a BMW safety car comng out.

And when the action resumed, O’Halloran, Mackenzie and Mossey’s OMG Racing Suzuki team-mate Josh Elliott edged away at the front of the pack.

Mackenzie went for a lunge on the inside at turn six on the final lap, causing contact with O’Halloran who crashed out of the running, and although he took the chequered flag, he was given a three-second penalty which saw debutant Elliott awarded the win.

Scott Redding claimed third, just over a second ahead of Mossey.

But Mackenzie bounced back to win the second race, while O’Halloran was forced to retire with a technical problem on lap four.

Elliott battled it out with Dan Linfoot for the lead early on and the pair remained in a breakaway of four riders, with Danny Buchan and Mackenzie.

The safety car came out again when Josh Brookes suffered a technical problem, which saw the pack close up, and Mackenzie held on to claim the flag ahead of Elliott and Buchan.

Series leaders: Josh Elliott 45, Tarran Mackenzie 45, Tommy Bridewell 24, Luke Mossey 23, Danny Buchan 23, Luke Stapleford 20.