Andrew Ballard is hoping to step up his challenge for honours after recording his first win of the season.

The Portslade rider took victory in the Clubman 400 race at Oulton Park last weekend.

He finished two places ahead of team-mate John Evans, also from Portslade, who was making his first track appearance of the season. Both were riding a Kawasaki ZXR.

It completed a useful weekend for Ballard who finished third and sixth in the two King of Clubs Supersport 400 races.

Ballard said: "I am pleased overall. My times in the first Supersport race were a bit embarrassing compared to the front runners but those two are MRO guys.

"The bike was going well and I felt I was improving. I am getting back into the swing of things.

"The last race was my most enjoyable race as I beat half the field of 600 bikes.

"I think I will carry on with the Clubman 400 which is for riders without a national licence. That is more my level of riding.

"It is my first win of the season. I had just rebuilt the engine so I was a bit nervous how it would go. It could have gone wrong so it is a very good weekend."

Evans finished 19th in both Supersport races. He and Ballard will be having their bikes sprayed soon in their new team colours.

Also in the 400 class was Haywards Heath's Ric Davies who was 22nd and 24th in the two Supersport races before finishing sixth in the Clubman 400 showdown.

There were a number of other Sussex riders in action at Oulton Park on Saturday, a number of whom were getting some practice in ahead of the Easter Monday MRO Championship races at the same venue.

Haywards Heath's Alex Symon made his return to action after a big crash at Snetterton last month.

The accident had effectively written off his Yamaha R1 but he was back out on a new bike, a Suzuki GSXR, and recorded seventh and fifth in the two Powerbike races.

Luke Palmer, from Plumpton Green, showed considerable improvement to record ninth and seventh in the two races and he later in the Clubman 1300 Shootout which rounded off the day's action.

Mark Parrett (Midhurst) was 14th in both Powerbike races while in the first Supersport 600 overflow race he came second.

Brighton's Kenny Everest failed to finish the first Powerbike race and came 17th in the second.

Richard Diamond (Crawley) continued his winning start to the season by finishing first in the opening Grand Prix 125 race but he failed to finish the second.

In Monday's MRO races, there was disappointment for the two Sussex entries in the Supersport 600 race with Crawley's Oliver Merrilees finishing 28th out of 30 finishers while Parrett failed to finish.

In the Powerbike race, Symon was 11th, Everest 12th and Andy Denyer (Uckfield) 14th. Fellow Uckfield rider Sam Corke failed to finish as did Palmer.

Everest was disappointed with his weekend. A problem with new parts affected his results and a virus did not help Everest either.

He said: "I was hoping to be scoring good points early on in the season but I didn't realise how different the bike was.

"Hopefully we will address the problem for the next round.

"Hopefully I will have picked up some points for 12th place.

"It was a bit of a disaster but now I will get my suspension guy to spend a track day with me and get the bike set up to somewhere were I should be able to challenge more in the next race."