British Superbikes star Victor Cox says he is finally racing with a smile on his face again after overcoming a despairing and stressful start to the new season.

The Trowbridge racer, 23, competes for the STP/JHS racing team, which is powered by equipment from European firm MV Agusta.

Cox missed the first race of the season as parts did not arrive from Italy and then rode a new, untested Honda engine second time out.

However, after a week of frantic testing and adjustments, the former John of Gaunt School pupil headed to Donington Park where he finished narrowly outside the points positions in both races.

Cox is now targeting going one better at the Thruxton circuit this weekend.

“Only two teams in the world this year use the MV Agusta engine so it is quite rare,” he said. “But we’re having difficulty actually racing it with limited parts.

“I struggled at Oulton in the second race when we decided to go with the Honda engine as we were still waiting on stuff from Italy.

“I broke down in every session bar the warm up. Then I broke down in the first race and flew off in the second.

“That’s why it was so good to finish at Donington. It really put a smile on everyone’s faces again after all the work done in the week before.

“I beat some competitors with really good bikes. We’ll make more improvements this week, get some better brakes on there, and the aim is a points finish, which is top 15.

“That probably sounds bad as you should want to win every race but it would be an achievement given our start.”

After only qualifying in 26th place out of 29 on Saturday, Cox roared through the field to finish 17th in the first race and 16th in the second on Sunday.

The Ashton Street-based racer will be using the Honda engine again this weekend and hopes he has put his nightmare start behind him once and for all.

“I’d like to think I will be pushing for top 10 but realistically the aim is to keep scoring points now,” he said.

“We are a small team on a small budget competing against the biggest teams in the country. British Superbikes is the hardest championship in England though and I’m just pleased to have a cracking team behind me.”

l You can watch Cox compete at Thruxton at 12.25pm on Sunday on British Eurosport Two.