Dougie Lampkin took third place in last week's World Indoor Championship trial in Austria -- but saw his chances of a seventh World Indoor title slip away.

The Silsden rider blasted organisers for setting an easy cours and was certainly not happy to see Spanish rider Adam Raga extend his championship lead with his third successive victory.

"There is no disputing that Raga is riding well, but when you finish on four marks and end up third it is hard to accept that the event is worthy of it's status," Lampkin said.

Raga's win has virtually ended Lampkin's chances of collecting a seventh World Indoor title. He is 12 points behind and must win all the remaining rounds while Raga must fail to qualify in at least two.

One single mistake during the heat at section four when Lampkin's wheel failed to grip on the slippery floor and resulted in a five on the hazard almost costing him a place in the final.

However it was Freixa who would eventually head the four qualifiers, with Dougie, Raga and Cabestany thankful to fill the remaining places.

The series continues to attract large crowds, with a capacity audience of 6,000 packing the sports arena.

Lampkin did little wrong in the final, losing a single dab at section two when a pile of compressed paper broke away, and could consider himself fortunate as Freixa had suffered the same problem and collected an early five.

Two more marks on the concrete columns and another one on the final water hazard, could hardly be classed a poor performance, but Dougie's total would relegate him to the lower tier of the rostrum.

"Everyone has been riding on a knife edge tonight. There is always going to be a winner, but from my point of view it is difficult to attack when you know if you try too hard you either might not make it through to the final, which would be a real disaster, or you are going to blow any chance of winning the event."

"Lets just hope that the next trial in Italy on Saturday lives up to its World championship billing."

Championship to date: 1: Raga 130, 2: Lampkin 118, 3: Cabestany 104, 4: Freixa 91, 5: Fujinami 80, 6: Jarvis 78

n Colin Appleyard Racing has signed a major sponsorship deal with online revruitment agency TDB recruit.com for the 2003 British Superbike campaign.

Australian Paul Young and young Brit Jon Kirkham will continue as the team's riders on Yamaha R1's.

Announcing the deal Colin Appleyard said: "Last year we focused on establishing the team, now we need to establish ourselves as front-runners and podium finishers. I'm convinced that our strong rider line-up, technical expertise from Rob McElnea Racing andthe support os TDB Recruit.com and Yamaha we will fulfil our objectives yet again."