Jeremy McWilliams failed to finish both races at Mallory Park

McWilliams failed to finish both races in last weekend's third round of the championship at Mallory Park to begin his disappointing start to the series.

"We struggled to move forward and in the race we had a stability problem and whatever line I took on the circuit, it seemed to make it even worse.

"It got to the point where I was going to crash so I just pulled in."

"Unfortunately what seemed nearly OK in practice did not work when you were going that bit faster in the race.

"It was just impossible to get a consistent lap with stability so we need to change our settings back to what the other two guys in the team were running."

McWilliams' Stobart Honda team-mate and fellow Ulsterman Michael Laverty fared better on Sunday with a seventh and a ninth place finish.

"At least I'm racing again and making progress. Hopefully we can make an even bigger step forward at Oulton and the rest of the circuits."

"I'm definitely happy with those two races and it's nice to be racing up towards the front again," he said.

Meanwhile team boss Paul Bird agreed that his team had "made some big steps forward" but added that he wanted further improvement.

"Jeremy is the number one rider and should be up there but in fairness he's been struggling with a shoulder injury all weekend.

"He'll get that sorted this week and I think he'll be challenging for a top five place at Oulton next weekend," said Bird.