Dougie Lampkin saw his lead in the Indoor World Championship disappear when he could only manage third place at last weekend's fifth round staged in Barcelona.

He only just made it through to the final after beating Graham Jarvis in two dual lane races in the heats.

Lampkin said: "I've not been at my best and was quite fortunate to make it on to the rostrum after making some bad mistakes."

Despite the poor performance is still in the title hunt, just four points behind Spaniard Raga who took advantage of his home ground to secure the win, and lead the championship at the half way stage..

Fourteen thousand fanatical Spanish fans packed into the Olympic centre hoping to see a home winner. They were not disappointed when Raga and Cabestany eventually finished ahead of Lampkin, who remained in contention until the closing stages.

An unforced error in the last observed section saw Dougie ruled out of the deciding two races, leaving Raga to cruise to a deserved victory.

Although the course looked like it would produce some good riding, in reality the sections proved to be 'do or die' with many of the riders recording failures at the same points. Lampkin made it difficult to even qualify by 'fiving' hazards where his rivals had gone clear, but managed to go clear on sections that caused everyone else problems.

Only after two determined races did Dougie book his place in the elite three man final.

In the first section of the final Lampkin had a great chance to take an early lead. He was the only rider to conquer the first step, but his advantagesoon disappeared as he failed to crest the easier second step much to everyone's disbelief.

Another five at the third hazard, a carbon copy of the mistake he had made in the heat, meant that Dougie was always playing catch-up. Another stunning ride on the next section brought him back in touch with the two Spaniards.

"I had my chances tonight, but didn't take them and to make it worse I then made mistakes in places where I shouldn't. The result shows I have paid the price, it's disappointing, but there is still some way to go yet.

"I will be fighting harder than ever to regain control next week in Italy and that's all I want to focus on now."

n Keighley motor cycle and car dealer Colin Appleyard has renewed his support of the ACU British Solo trials championship.

Auto Cycle Union trials and enduro committee member Dave Willoughby formally accepted the one year sponsorship package which has options to continue until 2005.

The Keighley motorcycle company was voted national Motor Cycle Dealer of 2002 by readers of a national motor cycle journal.

"We support the national trials championship, as we have done all last year and in the past with support of British world championship events."

The six round series runs from April at venues in Northern Ireland, the West Country, South Wales and Yorkshire and, for this year, an event will be held near Fort William in Scotland.