Strong performace from Smart at Croft.

Hawk Kawasaki star Scott Smart consolidated his third place in the THINK! British Superbike Championship today by taking a double podium in two hard-fought races at Croft.

His third and second place finishes gave the Hawk rider his sixth and seventh podium visits of the year.

In the first 22 lap outing Smarty mounted a strong challenge to Yukio Kagayama and Michael Rutter but he was unable to best the pair when his ZX-10R sprang an oil leak at mid-race distance. Despite being unable to hang onto the leaders Smart brought his bike home in third place despite the oil leak.

"I caught Kagayama up, and then I made a mistake and nearly ran into him so I dropped back," he said. "I caught him again, then dropped back but never got back to him after that. My foot slipped off the peg a few times as well because we had an oil leak, although the bike was essentially good."

Smart made up for his disappointment by snatching the lead from Kagayama on the first lap of the second race.

The Hawk rider immediately put the hammer down and pulled out a 1.7 second lead by the fourth lap. Smarty controlled the race from the front until lap 19, despite several strong moves from Rutter at Tower Bend, treating the huge crowd to some of the hardest racing of this year's series.

Smart eventually took second place, behind Rutter.

"It was great fun out there," beamed Smart on the podium. "I really got my head down at the start and pulled out a 1.5 second lead. I'd given my tyre hell to pull away so I knew I'd have to ease off a bit and that's when Rutter and Reynolds caught up. I thought, 'we'll sort this out in the last few laps,' but we ended up doing that for the last six laps. The boys worked really hard between the races to fix the bike so I have to thank them for giving me a bike to do the business on in the second."

John McGuinness impressed yet again by bringing his Hawk ZX-10R home in two strong top 10 finishes - tenth and seventh.

"That was a better race," he said of his second outing. "Kiyonari came by and I diced with him for a while before I caught Mason up, but I didn't quite have enough to pass him. I was in a nice rhythm so I just concentrated on bringing the bike home and was seventh in the end, which is encouraging.

"This weekend is the first time that bike has been run because at the others I was riding Glen's bikes. The new one felt a bit alien to start with but now we've got it feeling more like my bike. It was tough out there though. Two races, 44 laps, but we've got solid points and come home safely in both races."

After suspecting Croft may not suit the ZX-10R, Hawk Kawasaki Team Principal Stuart Hicken was delighted with the results. "This weekend has been great for the team," he said. "Starting with young Peter Hickman (Hawk Superstock rider) taking his first win, Scott getting two podiums and setting super lap times and John's two solid rides, especially because I didn't think our bike would suit this circuit. I'm over the moon with how the bike responded to the track and we're not far away from the others in terms of top speed now either."