Benfleet's Malcolm Armfield had a nasty collision for the second successive week in the Supersport 600 motorbike series.

Qualifying in a highly creditable 24th position for the first race at Mallory Park, Malcolm ran into the back of an out-of-control rider on the first bend, the hairpin at Shaws Corner.

He managed to keep hold of the bike to stay in the race - but admits the collision brought back bad memories of a nasty tumble at Brands Hatch the previous week.

Malcolm said afterwards: "I've had a couple of collisons in the past few months through no fault of my own - one at Lydden, the other at Brands - and it preys on your mind.

Racing affects you in the head. If you have an accident, you start concentrating on getting round in one piece rather than winning.

"When there are six or seven bikes abreast at the first corner, it can get a bit hairy because you are all going for the same piece of tarmac."

The collision saw Malcolm drop down to 29th place but he managed to claw his way back to finish in a highly creditable 22nd position.

Confidence restored, he then came 20th in the second race - five places ahead of East Hanningfield's Clinton Wood, who had suspension problems.

And he was more than happy with the result as the race had attracted an unusually high amount of national riders to the course.

He added: "I'm pleased to get 22nd and 20th against such a good field but I had hoped to have done a bit better."

The season now moves on to the Snetterton track on the weekend of April 2 and the local contenders will spend the next fortnight fine-tuning their bikes in anticipation.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.