Monday, April 25 2011
Dan Linfoot and the sorrymate.com Honda team got their British Superbike
Championship season underway in fine style at the weekend when they took two 8th place finishes at the opening round at Brands Hatch. With the season more competitive than ever before, Dan was on the poace all weekend and rode superbly in both 30-lap races to come away with a haul of 16 points and lie in joint 6th in the Championship table.
With perfect conditions throughout practice and qualifying, Dan got his weekend off to an ideal start when he recorded the 6th fastest time in Saturday’s first free practice session and he was able to lap quicker still later in the day, a time of 45.794s consolidating his place in the top six. Warmer conditions on Sunday meant times for the majority of the field were slightly slower on Sunday morning but Dan and the team had established a good machine set-up in preparation for the solitary qualifying session on Sunday afternoon. With competition in BSB stiffer than ever, a lap of 45.745s saw Dan end up 12th on the grid for race 1, only one tenth of a second off 5th place!
Hopes were high for Monday’s races after such a good, consistent showing over the previous two days and a good start saw Dan immediately move forward and slot into 9th at the end of the first lap. The pace, like the weather, was hot and the first incidents appeared on lap 11 when race leader Michael Laverty crashed out putting team-mate Tommy Hill onto the grass. Having lost a couple of places on lap 7, that elevated Dan up to 8th and with the safety car deployed, positions remained the same for the next three laps. That left half of the race still to go and it was a manic 15 laps with Dan shuffled back initally to 10th. However, he regrouped and was back up to 8th by lap 22, a position he held until the chequered flag, only 5 seconds adrift of race winner Shane Byrne.
Race 2 later in the day followed a similar pattern only this time Dan started from 10th on the grid having set the 10th fastest lap in the first race. Another good start saw him jump up to 8th and here he remained until lap 10 when he overtook Michael Rutter. There was little to choose between Dan, Rutter and Tommy Bridewell but Dan managed to eke out a small gap by mid-race distance. Bridwell, third in race 1, began to close the gap and as the race entered it’s final third, he managed to find a way through although Dan immediately re-took him. On lap 25, Dan was pushed back to 9th as both Bridewell and Rutter went by but when the former crashed out a lap later, Dan was back up to 8th and here he remained to make it 16 points from the two races.
Speaking afterwards, a delighted team manager Robin Croft said: "Two words sum up the weekend – absolutely brilliant! We’ve had good pace all weekend and progressed from session to session so deep down I was hopeful of two top-eight finishes but to actually get it really is the perfect start to the year."
"I’m delighted with the team’s work this weekend and with Dan’s maturity; he knew what we wanted from him and he delivered in every aspect. He worked really hard all weekend and rode two extremely good races with no mistakes and if you’re racing with, and overtaking, someone of the calibre of Michael Rutter, then you know you’re not doing a bad job! I couldn’t be happier with how the first round has gone and to be joint 6th in the Championship is a terrific start. We now head to our local round at Oulton with confidence high so let’s hope for more of the same there."
The second round of the British Superbike Championship takes place at Oulton Park, this next Bank Holiday weekend, April 30-May 2.
Pictures by Glynne Lewis
