John Crockford rode through the pain barrier at Thruxton on Sunday to confirm his challenge for the British Supersport Championship.

Third place, despite a badly gashed finger, the legacy of a high-speed qualifying spill, confirmed that the Southampton rider is among the class of the field.

But defending champion Stuart Easton suggested he's not about to give up the title lightly. The young Scot left the field trailing in his wake aboard the smaller version of the Monster Mob Ducati which simply flew through the fast sweeps of Thruxton.

Even championship leader Karl Harris couldn't match Easton's pace, despite having the power of the factory Honda at his disposal.

Crockford's "high-sider" through the Campbell-Seagrave complex on Saturday left him battered and down on the second row of the grid. It took him seven laps to battle his way through to third place but he admitted later, with a wry smile: "By the time I'd fought my way through to third, the front two had cleared off."

For the rest of the 20-lap race Crockford had his hands full keeping young chargers Simon Andrews and Tom Sykes at bay.

After seeing a Superbike ride disappear from under him in January, Crockford landed on his feet when Padgett offered him their new Honda 600. They look the strongest team in the championship and, significantly, Crock's teammate Adrian Coates was among those pushing him for third slot earlier in the race.

While Crockford moved up to third in the Supersport Championship, Southampton's Chrysalis team were in the doldrums after only managing 13th place - disappointing for ex-British champion John McGuinness who is used to being a front runner.

Joint team manager Neil Morris explained that lack of funds are holding the team back.

"We are having to skimp on things like qualifying tyres and it's not making it easy for John having to start on the third or fourth row," he said. But the most frustrated Hampshire rider of the day was Waterlooville's Jamie Morley, who ran out of fuel on the last lap of the National Superstock race while lying third. His Lloyds Autobody Racing team described it as a "fuel mapping problem". In other words, they were led to believe that Morley had taken on more fuel than he actually had.

Defending champion Dave Jefferies made an early break, pursued by Matt Llewellyn, leaving Morley, his teammate Steve Brogan and Tristan Palmer to squabble over third place.

When the race was red-flagged and restarted for the remaining seven laps, Morley moved up from fourth place before spluttering to a halt going into his 17th and final lap.

It wasn't a happy day either for Winchester's James Hillier, who was storming along third in the early stages of the Virgin Mobile Yamaha T6 Cup before getting a pit signal that he had received a ten-second penalty for a jump start.

It pushed him back to 14th in a race won by Lingfield's Tommy Hill, who is coached by Crockford.