Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot put in a determined performance to secure his best ever MCE British Superbike race result at Donington Park. On his maiden weekend with his new team the Englishman had a hard fought battle for the win alongside PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne and missed out on a victory by half a second.
In the end he had to settle for a respectable second place finish in race two. Linfoot also put in a solid performance in race one, where he crossed the finishing line in fourth, after battling it out with RAF Reserves Peter Hickman. Linfoot’s debut race weekend with the Honda camp could not have gone much better, and it appears that an extensive pre-testing programme has paid off, as Linfoot lies second in the overall championship standings.
Linfoot showed that he was a match for the more experienced Byrne and the lead between the pair changed multiple times throughout the final race at the Leicestershire circuit, but in the end the Kawasaki man had that added pace to take a win.
“I went into the second race wanting to build on what I did in the first race. It was never the plan to have an epic battle with Shane. But I got on the back of him and I thought, ‘If I get the opportunity I’ll do it.’ I had the softer tyre and didn’t want to kill it,” said Linfoot, at the track.
“I know that Shane always had something in reserve, and I could see where the Honda and the Kawasaki were strong. I saw a few places where I could take a chance, and the rest you saw on then telly. What I learnt in BSB last year was consistency, and the need to take away points. I released some endomorphins in that race. You have to like every track in the series, otherwise you get a mental block and don’t do
well.”
