HAMPSHIRE'S favourite motorcycle road racer, John Crockford, will be back for a one-off ride at Thruxton on Sunday.

The former National Superstock runner-up is teaming up with Totton dealer Bernie Leigh for a ride in the big Bennett's British Superbike Championship meeting at the Andover track.

Crockford was unable to find a sponsor to contest the championship, but a chance meeting with Leigh at a Southampton theatre recently set up Sunday's ride on a Honda CBR-RR in the British Supersport Championship race.

"It's last year's model with a standard gearbox so it won't be the most competitive bike on the grid, but I was hoping to ride on my local circuit and I'm grateful to Bernie for giving me the chance," said Crockford, left .

"Unfortunately the lad who usually rides it put a con-rod through the case last time out which means an engine rebuild and gives me no time to test the bike."

Winchester teenager James Hillier rides the new Gearlink Kawasaki in the Super Cup section of the race. The former Virgin Mobile R6 Yamaha Cup front-runner was tenth in the first round at Brands Hatch.

The Superbikes top the bill, of course, and there's plenty of local interest with last year's championship-winning Rizla Crescent Suzuki team from just down the road in Christchurch.

They didn't have the best of starts at Brands, with defending champion John Reynolds still wearing a special cast to protect a leg broken in six places in a test spill just six weeks ago.

JR still managed two top-ten finishes and even outscored new team-mate Scott Smart, who took a tumble in his first race for Suzuki after a switch from the Hawk Kawasaki team for which he was a winner in 2004.

Young Japanese rider Ryuchi Kiyonari ran away with the first two rounds on the HM Plant factory Honda, but the racing at Thruxton tends to be closer and the Airwaves Ducatis of Gregorio Lavilla and Leon Haslam, the Virgin Mobile Yamaha of Sean Emmett and the Hawk Kawasakis of Australian riders Glen Richards and Dean Thomas could be snapping at the heels of the Honda boys, Kiyonari, Michael Rutter, Karl Harris and all.

Look out, too, for another local rider James Hurrell from Winchester who was third in the National Superstock Cup race at Brands.

Racing starts at 12.05.