MotoGP rider Sam Lowes dropped in again to Jurby kart track on Sunday to contest round eight of the Bushy’s-sponsored Moto-Syko Pit Bike Racing Association’s series.

The pace was certainly hot in the senior pit bike class, where the entire field clocked sub-minute laps for the first time in every heat.

Race one was full-on from the flag as regular front men Joe Bond and Ryan Crawley swapped the lead continually with Lowes - on one occasion three times going round the esses.

Something had to give and Crawley drew the short straw, getting flung off entering a bend, leaving Bond and Lowes to fight it out. Bond got it on the line by three seconds from Lowes, with 2016 pit bike champion Seb Spiers third.

Premium Bond, now getting a taste for it, was on fire and the day proved to be his.

Heat two was the most nailbiting, with Bond, Crawley and Lowes sometimes three-abreast. As the last lap flag went out, Lowes and Crawley touched and were flung off onto the grass.

A quick remount was not enough to catch the flying Bond, who took the win with Lowes second and Crawley third.

The trio went for it again right from the start in the final race. Bond and Lowes battled it out, back and forth, while Crawley dropped back a few bike lengths, wrestling a battered bike from his earlier encounter.

On the final lap, Bond broke away a few bike lengths from Lowes, as Crawley made a final charge and passed the resident MotoGP man, while closing down Bond. On the line, it was Bond by a mere 0.19 of a second over Crawley, with Lowes four seconds back.

The increasingly-dominant Hondas of team MSP Racing continued to run away with it in the classic 50cc class.

James Comish, now with an unassailable lead in the championship, was harried by his returning-from-injury team-mate Phil Berney.

Heat one had Comish steadily pull away to win by 16sec from Berney, with Suzuki-mounted John Roy slotting into third.

Heat two had Comish turn up the wick to win by 28s over Berney, with Roy again third.

The final saw added drama when the oil pipe on Comish’s Honda burst, leaving the way open for Berney to grab the win from Roy, with wet weather man Peter Swain - waiting for the rain that never came - slotting into third.

The battle royal continued between Illiam Quayle and Welsh rider Gareth Arnold in the junior pit bike class.

Quayle had a bad start in the first, but clawed his way back to take the win over Arnold, with Rhys Collister six seconds back in third.

Heat two was ding-dong all the way between Quayle and Arnold, but Arnold took it on the line by two seconds, with Callister hanging on their coat tails in third.

The final was similar, with Quayle edging it by 0.74s on the line from Arnold, both producing 58-second laps. Callister was third, only 0.28 off the magic minute.

Arnold put up the fastest lap of the day at 58.60s, a hair’s width outside the record, but that has to go this seasonwith the steam these lads are putting out.

DAVID CAIN