Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot has overcome major injury and adversity to cement his place inside the top six and bag that coveted Showdown spot, after a successful MCE British Superbike weekend at Oulton Park.
The rider missed this round out a few months ago as he was injured but made up for it as he was able to bring home a brace of points for his team, including a third place podium in race-two, and with his solid and consistent form he was able to make his way into the Showdown, and currently lies fifth overall.
But he did admit that he found the last race stressful, as it all came down to the final outing this afternoon at the Cheshire track. He had to win eight points for a chance to get that final place, and he did just that.
The Northerner was able to take advantage of the fact that PBM Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton was missing from proceedings due to injury, and in the end Linfoot leaped frogged him in the standings to snatch a place in the Showdown and the chance to challenge for the title.
“I feel very much relief and I missed a lot of rounds due to injury and when I did comeback the pace wasn’t good and I had too many crashes and to get one of the places in the Showdown is a massive relief off my shoulders. I want to keep scoring regular podiums and the Fireblade has come on a dream this weekend and we improved on a few things,” said Linfoot, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.
“The last race today was a bit stressful, as I knew there was a big amount of pressure to get in and I knew how much it meant to the team to get in especially after Jason becoming injured because he was looking so secure in the Showdown, but now that’s done I still want to move forward from fifth.
“Realistically I thought that I could make it into the Showdown as I knew that Stuart would have some difficulty with his injury and I knew there was an outside chance. But if I am honest I expected not to get in. I came here expecting that it was going to be close and I was cursing one of the crashes that I had at Brands as I threw away a lot of points, to have done enough in the end was good, and I didn’t really expect it but I thought the Showdown was possible.
Team manager Havier Beltran said: “I am really, really pleased and we started off so strong at the beginning of the season and I felt for Dan with his injury and coming back I knew we would be on the back foot for a bit.
“When he came back the target was to get in the top six and that is what we have done. I hope now we can flow through a few things, monitor the circuits that are coming up and the tracks will suit Dan and the Fireblade and hopefully good things will come from it, but we are all really happy.”
