John McGuinness made a triumphant return to the Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship on Sunday with a brilliant third place at Oulton Park. Competing in the series for the first time since Knockhill a month ago, the Padgetts Honda rider called on all his experience in torrential rain to move through the pack and claim a superb podium position in the shortened race, his first since September 2009. With perfect conditions on Friday, John placed 10th in the free practice session and then improved his time by almost 1.5s in opening qualifying, a time of 1m40.271s placing him in provisional 8th place on the grid. With heavy overnight and morning rain, Saturday's final qualifying session took place on a damp, but drying, track and although only a handful of riders did improve their times, one was John's team-mate Adam Jenkinson and it was enough to push him down to 9th place and the third row of the grid. Race day on Sunday saw even heavier rain and conditions really were treacherous as the 40-strong grid left the line but a good opening lap saw John up to 7th place as the field started their second lap. Part of a six-man group battling for fourth, McGuinness moved up to 5th on lap 2 and this became 4th a lap later as he overhauled Tristan Palmer. He quickly opened up a gap over the pack behind and was safe in fourth when third placed Danny Buchan crashed out at the beginning of the fifth lap. That promoted John up the order to 3rd and with conditions worsening and Buchan stuck in the air fence, the red flag came out soon after. The result was subsequently declared at 4 laps with half points awarded and John was delighted to be in third place and take his first podium in the series since Silverstone almost two years ago. There was double celebration for the Padgetts team with Jenkinson taking the race win. Speaking afterwards, a delighted John said: "It was really unpredictable out there and whilst some parts of the circuit had good grip, other sections had no grip whatsoever. You had to be really cautious and smooth but I tucked the front at the first corner on the first lap and had my feet down so had to regroup and just focussed really hard on staying as smooth as possible. The middle of the track seemed to have the most grip and be the best line to be on so I kept there and once I'd got up to fourth I had some clear road in front of me and was able to take the lines I wanted. I've felt strong all weekend, in both the wet and the dry, and to be back on the podium is absolutely brilliant so a big thanks to everyone in the team, it's been another good day." John now heads to Suzuka, Japan for the next round of the World Endurance Championship. The 8-Hour race takes place on July 30/31. - Ends -