Nutt takes second win of the season with great showing at Cadwell Park

With third in the race the previous day, it proved to be his best meeting of the year thus far and keep alive his hopes of retaining the Championship he won last year.

Having qualified in a good third place and on the front row on the Ducati Coventry/JHP Racing/Nutttravel.com Ducati, Marty had high hopes going into Sunday’s 10-lap race and, sure enough, it turned out to be a three-way battle for the win between himself and regular sparring partners Dennis Hobbs and Leon Morris.

The trio were never more than a second apart although overtaking opportunities were limited around the narrow, woodland circuit limited and, try as he might, Marty was unable to make a pass stick and he crossed the line in third place, just half a second adrift of race winner Morris.

The sun of Sunday had been replaced by rain on Monday but with another good start, Marty immediately slotted into third place behind Morris and Hobbs.

Positions remained the same until the seventh lap when Marty was able to overtake both riders but although Morris slipped off the pace slightly, Hobbs was still very much in close attention.

However, Marty successfully resisted the challenges and he duly crossed the line for his second win of the season, 0.128s clear of Hobbs.

With two rounds and 100 points still available, Marty remains in third place overall on 194 points with Morris leading on 255 and Hobbs in second on 233.

Marty said afterwards: “It’s been a pretty good weekend and, amazingly, I never touched the bike from the previous round at Oulton, we ran exactly the same set-up and it worked a treat.

“In the first race, the three of us were really close together throughout but it just wasn’t possible to make a safe overtaking manoeuvre and if I’d have tried anything it would have been a lunge and a bit too risky.

“It was quite frustrating having to sit there in third and although I thought I might be able to pick up the pieces if anything happened between Dennis and Leon, I had to settle for third.

“I was quite pleased to have bridged the gap to them though as they had quite an advantage in qualifying and with the rain on Monday, I knew it would be closer still. My crew chief has found a really good wet setting with the bike so I had plenty of feel and confidence and just sat there in the first few laps allowing everything to get up to working temperature.

“I stayed with the front two and picked them both off on the same lap and just pulled the pin as best I could. Dennis stuck with me though and had a go back at me at the end but I just made it to the line first. Having a consistent bike really helped me this weekend and I’m delighted with the results and there’s still 100 points available so you just never know what might happen at the final two rounds.”

The penultimate round of the series takes place at Assen, Holland on September 19-21.