The Morecambe ace found himself the innocent victim of another rider's mistake in Round Two of the British Supersport Championship and he was knocked off his Padgett's Honda in only the second lap of the race.

Practice and qualifying saw a mixture of conditions and John's fortunes were equally mixed, as he slipped back to 12th in the final, damp qualifying session, after running as high as fifth in the first session.

He was consistently in the top eight in Saturday's dry practice sessions so hopes were high going into race day.

However, rain began to fall as the riders completed their sighting lap for the race and tyre choice was anybody's guess, but with a wet front and an intermediate rear, John felt in good shape as the lights turned green.

As soon as the race began though the red flag came out and with only two laps completed, a complete re-run was scheduled.

With the track drying all the time, John made a great start and left the line in ninth place, but on only the second lap, Sam Owens missed his braking point for the Hizzy's chicane and hit John with enough force to knock him clean off his bike.

Aaron Walker was also caught up in the melee, with a few strong words subsequently exchanged between him and John, but the damage had already been done and their race was over abruptly.

After returning to the pits on his damaged Honda, John said: "What a disaster! I got a great start in the race but there was loads of bumping and barging going on in to the first corner and I got squeezed right on to the inside kerb, losing a few places in the process.

"I re-grouped and was just getting back into my rhythm when I got hit from nowhere.

"I had no chance of staying on and ended up having a bit of a scuffle with Walker as I thought it was him that had hit me – it turned out it was Sam Owens and he didn't even come off!"

"I was still struggling a bit for confidence in the front tyre but the crash was out of my hands so to have my race end like that is obviously disappointing.

"Sam came up after the race to apologise but that's the third time in four years I've been knocked off there so it's fair to say it's not my luckiest corner!

"With no points from two rounds, let's hope our bad luck is out of the way and we can get some much needed points on the board at the next round."

John won't have long to wait to make amends, with the next round of the British Supersport Championship taking place at Brands Hatch this weekend, Sunday, May 11.