WESTHOUGHTON motorcycle racer Joe Lawrence climbed up to ninth in the Pre-National 600 Championships ahead of the latest round of racing at Anglesey this weekend.

The 27-year-old speedster piled on the points in the last round at Rockingham with two fifth-placed finishes and two sixth from the four races.

Lawrence had been working on his fitness at local gym The Strength Factory after recovering from a fractured wrist suffered earlier in the season.

But it was problems with his bike rather than his body that hindered the youngsters progress in qualifying, earning 12th on the grid following issues with under-steering and suspension.

Lawrence said: "We had made a lot of changes to the suspension to get the bike to turn better and hold the lines through the long corners, thanks to Teut Wiehn at TW Suspension Tech, who was still on the phone while he was celebrating his wedding anniversary in Italy.

"The changes paid off in the opening race. We had much better handling.

"I got a great start and was straight into seventh place. I then managed to get into sixth on the second lap and pulled away from the riders behind, catching up to the next two riders.

"In the end we brought it home in sixth, which was excellent."

Lawrence improved further to finish fifth in the second race of the weekend, posting fast enough lap time to be bumped up to seventh on the grid for the next day's two races.

He was challenging for second place in the third race of the weekend before a mistake on a hairpin bend cost him.

Lawrence recovered to finish sixth, in a time two seconds quicker than his best on the first day, and went one better to come home in fifth in the final race.

"Overall it was a great weekend," he said. "The wrist is still not 100 per cent but we got a good handful of points in the bag, which elevated us to ninth position in the championship – not bad considering we have only had two full weekends racing.

"The team were faultless all weekend, and I was probably the most relaxed I have ever been thanks to the hard work by my dad and Brett getting the bike ready for each testing session and each race."