Leon Morris collected maximum points for the first time this season with a double win at Round 4 of the Ducati 848 Challenge at Snetterton on Sunday. The Buildbase/JHP Racing rider, still only 23 but with a number of years of National experience already, had been second to team-mate Darren Fry for most of the season, but in the bright sunshine at the fast Norfolk circuit he finally stepped out of Fry's shadow.
 
With only a short qualifying session to refine his setup, Morris made some crucial gearing changes before the first race which paid dividends, as he was able to tap into the mid-range drive of the Ducati 848 out of the all-important Russells chicane. Qualifying just ahead of him was Fry, who was still feeling the effects of a big crash the previous weekend at Mallory Park, and one second behind them both was the ever-improving Mark Cheetham on the Shorrock Motorcyles/Ducati Preston bike, who too was nursing an injury from off-roading accident.
 
Morris led from the off in race one, lapping almost a second faster than Fry and would continue to set a blistering pace for the remainder of the race. Fry meanwhile was putting a similar gap between himself and the chasing pack, who were led for the first two laps by Peter Hasler on the Boast Plumbing 848, who had a brilliant start to make up three places into the first corner. Sy Langford was forced to retire on on lap 2 due to a mechanical issue, but he would certainly have been battling hard with this following group having scored a class win the day before in the New Era Club Championship on his Red Dog Ducati-backed bike, along with a win for Barry Poll on the Perfect Move bike and two podium places for Hasler. Lap 3 saw Cheetham get into his stride and move up into third place, meanwhile Poll and fifth-placed qualifier Stuart Poyser continued to push Hasler for fourth, with Poll finally overtaking his man on lap 6 on the main straight. The race was to lose Poyser on lap 9 low siding out of Sears bend on the back straight, and so it was Alan Walker on the TR Motorsport bike and Sean Hourigan on the David Hamilton-backed bike who completed the field at the end of race one.
 
Race two was again all about Leon Morris who demonstrated his return to form with a fastest lap of the day of 1:10.34 set on lap two, three-tenths faster than the 1098s of the SOT class with which the 848s were sharing a grid. Fry reduced the winning margin, but injury meant he wasn't able to push his team mate any further, and so it was Cheetham who was close to getting second place finish only seconds behind Fry, with Poll pushing hard for fourth. The unlucky Poyser was again to crash out, this time at Russells on the first lap, the victim of a momentary loss of brakes resulting in him running in too fast and unable to avoid a low side coming out. And so it was left to Langford and Hasler to provide the closest racing of the day, the two riders never more than a second apart the whole race, with the experienced Langford just holding off the challenges of the ex-KTM Cup rider when the race was red-flagged. When Walker crashed at the super-fast Corams Curve on lap 7 the race continued briefly under yellows but was soon stopped when it became apparent that the popular rider would need medical treatment. Hourigan completed the field, again getting some vital race experience under his belt in his first season of racing.
 
And so racing over, it was Morris who took to the top step of the Ducati 848 Challenge podium for the first time this season to collect the winners trophy. And again moments later, he took to the top step for the second time, a popular result for everyone involved with the series. Fry still leads the Championship on 165 points, but with two wins now to his name and eight races still to run Morris has surely an eye on the title with 126 points, and Cheetham on 120 points is still very much in the running.