The 25-year-old overcame a near crash to follow home chief rivals Jamie Robinson and Adrian Coates in the 28 lapper to take a 41 point advantage into round ten at Cadwell Park in two weeks time.

Said John: "I got shunted from behind early on when Shane Norval crashed at the hairpin. It broke all the seat and I had to give it a few laps to see if it would be OK by which time I'd lost the tow of the two in front. I was trying 110 per cent after that but when I wasn't closing in I decided to settle for some safe points.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.