Manxman Conor Cummins was left frustrated on Sunday when he just missed out on the points at round 11 of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship. Competing on the Silverstone GP circuit for the first time, the Blackhorse Kawasaki rider finished in 18th place for, amazingly, the fifth time this season so was disappointed not to have added to his tally of Championship points. Having missed the corresponding meeting 12 months ago due to recovering from the injuries sustained in his Isle of Man TT crash, Conor set about learning the 3.6-mile circuit during practice as well as trying to find a good set-up with the ZX-10R Kawasaki. Reducing his lap times in each and every session, he ended qualifying in 25th place to head off the seventh row. A good start to the 11-lap race saw Conor leap up the order to lie in 20th place at the end of the first lap and although he briefly slipped back to 21st he was back up to 19th at the end of the fourth lap. This soon became 17th as he overhauled both Jonathan Railton and Michael O'Brien but that was as high as he was able to climb as a major front wheel slide saw him drop back to 20th two laps later. He managed to climb back up to 18th at the chequered flag but was left frustrated as to how his race had gone. Speaking later, Conor said: "Having missed the meeting last year, it was tricky learning the circuit as it seemed that only the first and last corners were the same and I struggled all weekend to get the bike to handle how I wanted it to. The race itself was going ok though up until the mid-race point when I had a huge slide which nearly had me off. I managed to save it with my knee but that told me that I was riding over the limit so I decided to stick with a pace that wasn't going to see me crash out." "The last 3 meetings have seen me suffer a number of front end issues and it's what's holding me back at the minute. I can't hit my apexes and so am having to scrub off speed on the way in to the corner just to make it round so it's frustrating for all of us as the whole team are working their backsides off to try and sort it out - the effort going into the job is superb. At the end of the day it was another finish and I have to keep reminding myself that this is what the year's all about." Conor now has a two-week break before the final round takes place at Brands Hatch on October 7-9. ENDS