Last year young South Australian Billy McConnell and Brendan Roberts had some great battle in the C & D graded Australian Superstock Series and for 2005 both riders have taken their battle to England and are contesting the Virgin Mobile Yamaha R6 Cup events that run as a supporting act to the British Superbike Championship.

The opening round was last weekend at the Brands Hatch 'Indy' layout and McConnell has experienced instant success with a podium finish first time out!

Brendan Roberts also did well and recorded lap times good enough to get him well inside the top ten but had to settle for an encouraging 12th place.

Another Australian, David Anthony, is also contesting the R6 Cup. His first round is one to forget though as after qualifying in the top 15 and running good lap times he failed to finish.

David Johnson, yet another South Australian, has been campaigning in the UK for a couple of years now and is this year competing in the British Superstock Series aboard a GSX-R1000.  David had a fantastic debut on the Suzuki with sixth place at Brands, two places ahead of fellow Australian Paul Young.

Johnson had qualified fifth and fought race long battles with Adrian Coates and Ryan Rainey.

Johnson was very pleased with his results saying "It was a great race and a very tough battle out there on track. Brands Hatch Indy is only a short circuit and back markers always cause a problem. I met a few in the wrong place on the circuit and I couldn't get passed them. I'm really happy with my results and it's a very positive start to the season for me, many thanks to all my sponsors Drayton Croft Motorcycles, Teng Tools and MRS. I can only see this weekend as a very encouraging start to the season. I felt very happy out there I was having a few tyre problems towards the end but nothing too major. I can't wait to get to Thruxton now."

Nigel Broomhall, Team Manager was very impressed with Johnson's performance "The whole team are proud of Dave's performance today and it has given us a lot of encouragement for the season. It's a very tough class out there and Dave really lived up to all our expectations. He's a very good rider and extremely easy to work with. We have a few small issues that we will be changing before Thruxton but apart from that we are assured of some strong results in the remaining races. You never quite know what will happen at the first race meeting and I'm very glad that the weekend passed without any serious glitches."

In the 125 GP ranks young Queenslander Matt Kuhne recovered from 23rd position on the grid and a terrible start to push through the pack for 14th place in the red flag shortened encounter.

Our trusty snapper in the UK, Chris Martin captured images of some of the boys in action at Brands and you can check the first batch out by clicking here.