David Knight was happy enough with second place in Weston Beach Race, although he felt that he could have won both the solo and the two-man quad race.

He and Guy Martin led the quad race on the big farm-based 900cc Polaris twin.

’I managed to get a good start and was second for the early part of the opening lap of the combined quad race, third by the end of the lap,’ he explained yesterday.

’There were bottlenecks and a few of the race bikes managed to get past me. We were leading the two-man event and lying fourth overall when I handed over to Guy after four or five laps. He rode well, maintaining the lead for his three laps.

’But a drive belt snapped on the first lap of my second stint. I managed to get it back to the pits and the Polaris guys fitted another belt, but we lost a good half-hour.

’I eventually got going again and was making up ground on the other two-man machines, but then the bike would overheat and slow to walking pace until it cooled off again.

’Guy had the same issue, but we kept going and had a laugh. I knew the bike wasn’t really suited to the event, it’s a farm bike after all, but we got seventh in the two-man class on 13 laps, which was good enough.’

The combined quad/sidecar race was won by Stefan Murphy on a count of 18 laps.

Tom Cannell was the leading Manxie in 17th place on 16 laps.

Mike Kerruish and Matt Thorpe were the first two-man team on the 450 Yamaha in 21st place on 15 laps.

Robert Bakker was 26th overall on the KTM, also with 15 laps, with young Tom Knight 112th on a two-stroke 200cc Yamaha with a count of 11 laps.

Ben Begbie was credited with 115th place on 10 laps, having gone well before a gear shaft snapped on his Honda. Russell Plant was 123rd on the same lap count.

Liam Crellin grabbed a top-10 finish in the 125/250F Youth class on his 250 Yamaha with a tally of 27 laps of the shorter course. Josh Greedy won on 29, while Tom Knight went well on the ex-Jake Subachus 250 Sherco to grab 13th on 26 laps.

Peel’s Ryan Quirk was 19th in the Youth 85cc class won by Holland’s Jens Walvoort on 28 laps. Quirk completed 22 on his Husqvarna.

David Knight’s start in the main solo race of the weekend on Sunday was not his best and he was held up a lot on the difficult sections of the course. Other than that the course was very fast. He got more dialled in on lap two and had made his way up to third place when he landed on a fallen rider’s bike off one of the big jumps.

’It hurt my arm and knocked my confidence for a bit,’ he admitted. ’You need to have confidence in the marshals letting you know if riders are in the way, and I wasn’t confident. I had a breather before going back out and got back into my rhythm after about an hour, but had lost a lot of time.’

Riding a 350cc KTM four-stroke he eventually worked his way back through the field to second place. ’Juan told me that I was taking 10 seconds a lap or so out of the leader, top British MX2 rider Todd Kellett. I knew, going into the final lap, that I was safe in second place but could only beat [Todd] Kellett if he hit problems or stopped.

’The lead was around three minutes, but then my bike ran out of fuel coming to the finish and I had to push the last 100 metres or so, costing me another two or three minutes. I was happy with a podium finish,’ he added.

Ulsterman Martin Barr, 2016 British MX champion was third on 21 laps, the same as extreme enduro man Jonny Walker on the factory KTM.

Seasoned all-rounder Adrian Smith finished 164th on his KTM with a count of 14 laps, one more than Jamie Cringle (211th) on the 450 Honda.

Newly re-crowned Centre road race champion Ryan Cringle was credited with 396th place after the piston on his 450 Yamaha cracked on lap 11.

A total of 729 riders started the race.

The 35th annual Weston-Super-Mare beach race attracted crowds of around 70,000 people. The event is believed to add up to £10million to the Somerset town’s economy.