Maidstone's Scott Smart celebrated his first Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship podium of the season at round four at Cadwell Park and promised there’s plenty more to come.

The 35-year-old showed no signs of the technical faults that have blighted him during the first three rounds of the season as he held off Luke Quigley to grab third.

Jon Kirkham took the chequered flag in first to overtake Steve Plater – absent through injury – at the top of the standings while Tristan Palmer finished second.

And after collecting 16 points and doubling his tally at a sun-drenched Lincolnshire circuit Moto Rapido rider Smart is adamant his fortunes have changed for good.

“It feels great to get my first podium of the season, but I had to work hard for it,” said Smart. “I think the front three all made tiny little errors and that saw it all ebbing and flowing but obviously we all had virtually the same lap times.

“But the main priority was to try and stay safe and if any of them had made a mistake then I would have pounced on the gap, but it wasn’t to be.

“We’ve had some ups and downs this season, but overall it’s not going too badly. I’ve had trouble qualifying and haven’t qualified well anywhere up to now.”

Smart was left fuming at Oulton Park last month after an ongoing electrical problem with his Ducati machine forced his retirement after just seven laps.

But with frustrations running high and the team running short of ideas Smart revealed a decision was made to replace key components before travelling to Cadwell Park.

“The mechanics spent an awful lot of time working very hard to find the problem with the bike searching every last thing but couldn’t find it,” added Smart. “We’ve changed everything so hopefully the glitch won’t reappear.

“The Ducati doesn’t have the outright speed of the BMW or the others but Cadwell is a very tight and twisty circuit and it’s a very forgiving bike and it seems to be working really.”

British Eurosport 2 will be broadcasting every round of the 2010 MCEBritish Superbike Championship.The channelis available on Sky 411 &Virgin Media525.