Ant West wins V-Twin battle.

Australia's Ant West maintained his 100-percent points scoring record in he 500cc motorcycle world championship and won the V-Twin class in today's Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

The 19-year-old earned one championship point for finishing 15th in the third round of this year's 500cc series on his two-cylinder Dee Cee Racing Honda. He completed the 27-lap race 45.848-secs behind the winner, Italian Valentino Rossi, riding a Nastro Azzuro Honda V4.

West's result meant he has scored points in his two starts in the 500cc world championship. He previously earned two points for finishing 14th in his 500cc debut in the South African Grand Prix at Welkom on April 22.

After qualifying 19th at Jerez, West moved up to 16th position on the opening lap. He then improved to 15th on lap six and held that position for the remainder of the race.

West, who finished sixth in the 250cc world championship in 2000, was the leading rider on a V-Twin at Jerez. He finished 16.510-secs clear of the Briton Leon Haslam, who was next best among those on two-cylinder machines in 16th place on a Shell Advance Honda NSR500V.

In the closing laps West made a determined charge in a bid to snare 14th position from Spaniard Carlos Checa on a works four-cylinder Marlboro Yamaha. Checa finished just 0.318-secs ahead of West.

"That wasn't too bad," said West afterwards. "I was only 'three-tenths' (of a second) behind (Carlos) Checa at the end. At the start the guys in front of me pulled out a bit of a gap, and then (Chris) Walker crashed in front of me and I had no one to follow.

"I was chasing Checa and Jurgen (vd Goorbergh) and hoping they'd keep fighting among themselves which allowed me to get nearer to them. I always like to have someone to aim at when I'm riding so you don't go to sleep. You can think you're going fast when you're on your own, but you're actually going slow. I had a bit of trouble with the front-end on the turn that leads into the back straight, and if you're not fast there you lose so much time.

"Next comes Le Mans which I've been to once before, but it was drizzling so I never really got the measure of what it's like. It's a 'squirt-and-stop' track so we'll see how we go."