With a win, a second and a seventh at Donington Park, Tarran Mackenzie moved into second overall in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings to make it a McAMS Yamaha 1-2 with the results also seeing him claim the ‘King of Donington’ title.
Only 13th in Friday’s free practice sessions, the Ashby-based rider quickly put that behind him and after taking fourth in qualifying, he was in contention for the race victories in all three races.
Indeed, he could have won all three of them but after taking third in Saturday’s race, he showed some steely determination in Sunday’s opener after his commanding lead was wiped out by the deployment of the safety car.
Pushed back to second on the final lap by team-mate Jason O’Halloran, he responded immediately to reclaim the lead and in the half lap that remained, he opened up enough of a lead once more to give no one a chance of getting back by.
“It was awesome to get my second win of the season, I felt really dominant in the race, probably the best I’ve ever felt on the bike’” he said afterwards.
“I managed to pull a good lead which was around 3 seconds and then the safety car came out, which was an added stress but I couldn’t give the win away! I knew the laps would go up after the safety car went in and we’d have more than one lap to do but when Jason came by, I felt confident I could make a move at McLeans as I’d been strong there all weekend. It was the place where I could pass people the most so I made the move early and somehow got it stopped!”
The 25-year old then went with full wets for the final race of the weekend but although he led in the early stages, it soon became clear that the intermediates were the best choice. He ended up in seventh but it continuing to enjoy his best BSB season to date.
“In hindsight we should have gone with drier tyres but we made our decision and I was confident with it at the time. I got a good start but the wet front became quite difficult towards the end of the race so I was happy to finish seventh.“
“All in all it’s been a great weekend, both McAMS Yamaha riders on the podium in two races, I’ve moved into second in the championship and it was nice to win the King of Donington!”
