ANDOVER ace Jake Archer travelled to Brands Hatch last weekend in confidence mood after some testing at the Knockhill circuit on his Kalex Moto2 having missed important track time during the winter through injury.

On a weekend of mixed weather in Kent, the 18-year-old had his best qualifying of the season and finished seventh in the sprint race and sixth in the feature race.

In qualifying the 27 British Supersport and British GP2 riders started their half-an-hour qualifying session but rain began to fall meaning an enforced break.

Despite the rain the track was drying quickly and Archer went back out on slick tyres.

He put in eight consecutive laps improving his lap time to a 1:32.045 before calling into the pits for some fresh rubber.

With just five minutes or so left of the session Archer returned to the track and put in his two quickest laps of the weekend the best of which was a 1:30.825, which put him 17th overall and sixth in the GP2 class.

Just after race one had started, the rain began to fall around Graham Hill Bend and Surtees.

With the riders on slick tyres, it was enough for the race organiser to red flag the race.

The re-start would see an eight lap sprint and the race declared wet.

However, by the time the bikes lined up on the grid again the track was almost dry again.

Archer and most of the GP2 riders opted to stay on slicks.

The risk was that the race would only be stopped in extreme circumstances, if it rained again.

After the re-start Archer was running eighth in the GP2 category and despite some light rain came home in seventh.

For the feature race of 18 laps the day after Archer started 20th on the combined grid. Immediately, he gained a place after making a good get away from the start line.

He then found himself behind Jorel Boerboom another of the British GP riders.

He began to close the gap of around a second.

Then on lap six Archer overtook the Dutch rider. However, he was unable to shake him off and the two rode around wheel to wheel for the remainder of the race.

Lap after lap Archer held off the challenge of Boerboom.

Unfortunately, on the penultimate lap Archer lost the position. Try as he might he was unable to recover and ended the race sixth in the GP class.

His latest results saw Archer move onto 85 points and is fourth in the British GP2 championship.

Archer said: “We have made real progress this weekend. It helped having a test day at Knockhill last week. I feel more and more comfortable with the Kalex Moto2.

"Qualifying was great, and we finished both races. race one was a bit difficult because of the conditions but in the end I managed the situation well.

"In race two it was frustrating losing a position so near the end of the race but we are showing we are more competitive every time we go out.”

He will be back on track at round five of the British Superbike Championship in the GP2 support series at Knockhill on the last weekend of June.