Sunday's racing belonged to Simon Gates.

The Middle Wallop thatcher rode home to four scintillating victories to become man-of-the-meeting - and showed he's a class apart around his local circuit. It was a dream meeting for the 30 year old, who blew away 400cc national champion Neil Higgs and a quality field as he showed his mastery of the track that's just a short ride from his home.

"A little bit of track knowledge helped me out there today," said the modest son of 1988 national champion Geoff Gates. He caught the racing bug from his dad and has been competing on bikes ever since he was 16 - and he made his family proud with a sparkling set of performances on Sunday afternoon.

Simon stormed to two dramatic wins at 400cc on a 10-year-old Honda RS 250, and raced to another pair of victories on his G Gates Thatching two-stroke Aprilia.

While the rest of the field struggled to get to grips with Thruxton on its first meeting of the year, Simon took the right lines around the 2.36-mile circuit to blast his way to the front - and stayed there every time.

In the 400cc class, all eyes were on last year's champion Neil Higgs (pictured top left, trailing Simon), who along with Wayne Sullivan and Alex Kenchington was expected to provide the main challenge. But they had reckoned without the power of Gates, who took two stunning victories on a Honda that was lent to him by Brian Gill in Bexhill. The first race was a tight affair as he battled with Higgs and Sullivan throughout, with victory only being decided on the finishing line as he edged out Sullivan, who was later penalised for a jump-start, by a fraction of a second.

In the second 400cc race, Gates had the beating of Kenchington early on, then reeled in Higgs to earn a lead he would never relinquish - clocking up a super lap dead-on 100mph to underline his superiority.

The Wallop rider's main opposition in the Formula 400cc races came from Pete Thompson and Martin Jones, whose machines had no answer to his invincibility out on the technical sections of the circuit. Starting from relatively lowly grid positions, he sliced through the field and twice fought his way past the favourites for excellent victories.

The man-of-the-meeting told the Advertiser: "That first race was quite a close one, and the lead changed two or three times. I had it covered on the last corner, so I just got it. There was good opposition out there; Neil Higgs has done pretty well in the past to say the least, so it's good to beat him.

"I know this circuit well, and I won a national meeting here last year. It helps knowing this track, because people don't get out on it that much."

Simon will be taking to his favourite track again on the weekend of 19-20 April for support races when the British Superbikes come to Thruxton.