Tarran Mackenzie chalked up his first win of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch at the weekend and with strong second and third place finishes in the other two races, he left the Kent venue with the coveted ‘King of Brands' trophy.
More importantly though, it further established him as a major title contender and, after strong results at the opening two rounds as well, the McAMS Yamaha rider is in a rich vein of form and better placed than he’s ever been before.
The Ashby-based youngster was fast from the word go and, after taking pole position in qualifying, he delivered the goods for Steve Rodgers' team in each and every race and was, perhaps, unlucky to have only recorded one race win.
“It’s always nice to take your first win of the year and it's quite cool to do it here at Brands Hatch, especially from pole position and flag to flag," he said after Saturday's win.
"I had a good feeling from FP1 so we hardly needed to touch the bike all weekend and I felt strong on Friday and again in qualifying, which always helps.
“I knew if it was dry we could challenge for the win although I didn’t get away as I would have liked in Saturday’s re-started race. It was an intense 12 laps having +0 on my board, it was like 12 qualifying laps."
He wasn’t able to repeat his victory on Sunday but he was extremely close and second and third more than showed his title credentials although he recognised he was fortunate in the final race having made the wrong tyre choice before it was stopped and he got a second chance.
“I was a bit annoyed with Sunday’s first race as I felt I had the pace for more but I lost some positions in the early stages after some hard passes but it was another podium.
“I was lucky in the final race though as I’d gone with a wet front which was the wrong choice so the red flag definitely helped me out. Getting back on slicks really helped and it was a hard fought second which made it five podiums in a row. Winning the King of Brands was great too and we’re now up to third in the Championship having also closed the gap to the front.”
