Eugene McManus Junior returned in dramatic fashion at Round 6 of The Hel Performance Motostar British Championship at Brands Hatch.
Free Practice 1 was supposed to see The Wee Bull ease himself back into action after missing Round 5 on medical grounds but it wasn't long before he was lapping with the front runners.
Eugene finished the session in 4th position much to the surprise of his team. FP2 gave the Randalstown youngster the opportunity to put in 17 solid laps placing him in the top 10 heading into Saturday's qualifying.
With overnight rain leaving the track wet, E15 Racing decided to sit out the first part of the Qualifying session hoping to capitalise on any positive change in the track conditions.
McManus Junior only completed 7 laps and unfortunately this pushed him down the grid into 13th place for Race 1 which was scheduled to start in the afternoon. With weather conditions deteriorating so badly the decision was made to postpone and push back the race, this meant the Motostar paddock would now face two races on Sunday afternoon.
Race One McManus Junior started way down in thirteenth position but this didn't deter the youngster as he fought through to battle for a podium position with Storm Stacey and Jake Archer. In an exciting finish, The Wee Bull was narrowly pipped by Stacey by 0.057 of a second. Eugene's performance elevated him to third on the grid for Race Two.
Race 2 and the last of the weekends entertainment turned out to be a real firecracker with Tom Booth Amos running away at the front for a double win at Brands. The ensuing battle behind between Eugene, Jake Archer, Storm Stacey and Ed Rendell was possibly the highlight of the race card with all four riders swapping places for the ten lap finale. With less than a second separating the pack behind runaway leader Amos, it was Jake Archer who pinched second place ahead of Eugene McManus, all three riders are part of Ryan Saxelby's RS Racing factory.
A thrilling end to the racing now sees Tom Booth Amos leading the Championship ahead of team mate Archer by four points with Eugene fourth, as the Motostar paddock moves onto Thruxton in two weeks time.( 4th - 6th August )