Kirkham swoops for Croft win as Byrne blows out

His success came in a weather-affected opening race of the third round of the season, while Shane Byrne won race two to go to the top of the overall standings.

Rain delayed the start and that left riders with a gamble on tyre selection. Two-time former champion Byrne opted to start on slicks and led until his HM Plant Honda blew its engine on the eighth lap.

That brought the safety car out as officials checked for oil spillages and the pack bunched with John Hopkins leading from Gary Mason and Kirkham, who had moved through from the fourth row of the grid.

Kirkham, 26, was in the ascendancy, and picked off Mason before stunning Samsung Suzuki team-mate Hopkins by charging into the lead with seven laps remaining and going on to win by almost three seconds.

He said: “I honestly can’t believe it. That was the scariest race of my life in terms of deciding on tyres and the changing conditions but what a race.

“This was a fantastic result as we had such a hard start to the weekend, missing a lot of time with an issue but now I just want to get on with race two.”

But Kirkham’s hopes of completing a victory double ended on the first lap of the second race as he went down in a tangle with Michael Laverty.

Byrne took charge, leading throughout to take the victory and establish a 95-92 championship lead over Hopkins, who finished third, just adrift of Stuart Easton.

Londoner Byrne bemoaned his luck in the first race but was happy to come back strongly in the second.

“I wish it could have been a double win here today for HM Plant Honda as I have been desperate to do a good job here this weekend,” Byrne said.

“It was disappointing we had our first mechanical problem of the year in the opening race but we bounced back for the second one and I am pleased we still have the championship lead.”

World Touring Car Championship leader Robert Huff completed a double race victory at Monza by beating his Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller into second place in both races.

The first race saw a three-way battle between the Chevrolet drivers as Huff, Muller and Alain Menu battled right from the start in an attempt to take maximum points from the first race.

Thirty-one-year-old Huff was also run close by Frenchman Muller in the second race, eventually beating his team-mate over the line by just over two-tenths of a second.