A MASSIVE sun-kissed crowd crammed into Oulton Park for the third round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike championship and were rewarded with some fantastic racing.

After Alex Lowes steered his Samsung Honda to a race win and a third place in the Superbike feature races and Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne collected a win after crashing out in the first, all eyes were on Chester teenager Joe Francis.

The Backford Bullet stormed to victory on his WD40 Honda in the Monster Energy British Motostar Championship, in what turned out to be the race of the day for the 70,000-plus crowd.

He took the chequered flag just 0.055 seconds ahead of second -placed Tarran Mackenzie’s Redline KTM.

The pair had enjoyed a battle royal around the picturesque circuit along with the third-placed RS Racing KTM of Joe Irving.

But it was Francis, a 15-year-old Neston High School pupil, who took the honours after squeezing past Irving, who dropped back after taking to a slip road, before lining up Mackenzie for a classic block pass with just one lap to go.

Francis also scored the fastest lap after circulating at 90.19mph with a race average speed of 89mph.

Fresh-faced Francis could not contain his delight after scoring his first race win of the year.

He said: “We are getting the bike set-up right now. Mackenzie beat me in the first two rounds so today was massive for me.

“It was really close wheel to wheel racing. I just concentrated on being smooth and not making any silly mistakes.”

Chester-born Jenny Tinmouth endured a day to forget after coming 19th on board her Two Wheel Racing Honda in the first Superbike race and was forced to retire with engine problems in the second race.

Frodsham’s Howie Mainwaring steered his MH Kawasaki to 11th in race one and a fighting seventh in race two, crossing the line just 0.070 seconds ahead of the Rapid Solicitors’ Kawasaki of Keith Farmer.