When Luke Mossey took second place in the third race at Oulton Park last weekend it sealed his spot in the 2016 MCE British Superbike Showdown, his debut appearance in the three-round, seven race decider. It also knocked out Michael Laverty and the might of Tyco BMW. So how did someone riding for a privately-run team achieve such a feat?

Boss owner Pete Extance explains how they did it and just exactly what it means to the family-run Bournemouth-based team:

Being a privately-run team, what does it mean to make the Showdown alongside the better-financed, factory teams?
“It’s massive. When you look at the other teams that are in there, for us, a relatively small-funded, family team, to be amongst them is a huge achievement. If Luke goes on to finish in the top three of the Championship, it would be comparable to Leicester winning the Premier League!

“It’s almost a David v Goliath situation but we have great staff, a phenomenal rider in Luke, one of the best up and coming talents in the UK, and everyone works incredibly hard. We’d have been disappointed had we not have made it but it’s still a massive achievement.”

It’s the second time in three years that one of your riders has made it to the Showdown, what do you attribute that to?
“Dan (Linfoot) did a superb job in 2014 and had no DNFs, scoring points in every race, but – and this in no way shape or form is detrimental to what Dan did – there’s more strength in depth in 2016 than there was in 2014 so this year’s effort comes down to a lot of hard work and having good bikes.

“We’re known in the paddock for putting together good bikes and in Ray Stringer we’re fortunate to have one of the best people in the business in our garage. Ray, together with Johnny Gill, look after the bikes and without them we probably wouldn’t be where we are now. I’m hopefully doing a good job in running the team so I think it’s a combination of everything coming together.”

How difficult is it trying to compete on a smaller budget and less resources?
“We have to be very careful in everything we do with the budget we have. We can’t have people staying in hotels but we do pay wages and bonuses to our riders and pay good wages to our staff to ensure we maintain a high quality.

“But we spend every single penny of our budget and a little bit more to try and do the best we can. We don’t shy away from bills and never owe anyone anything so whilst we don’t have as bigger budget as other teams or as many resources, what we do have we try to use it all wisely and to the best of our abilities.”

What are the major challenges?
“The hardest thing is trying to hold onto riders and staff. Obviously Dan went to Honda and keeping hold of James (Hillier) on the roads has been a battle. Luke’s said he wants to stay with us and that’s the plan but we need to up our game and match what else is out there. As I said though, we put good, competitive machinery out on the grid and hopefully that’s an incentive for riders wanting to stay with us.

“We have a good hospitality set-up and have never lost a sponsor, only gaining them, but the higher up the ladder you go, the harder it gets with the budget we have at our disposal.”

Luke won the BSB Rider’s Cup last year and is now in the Showdown – how highly do you rate him?
“I firmly believe that now he’s in it, Luke can give the Showdown a real good and if I was a betting man, I’d say he’d be a good bet for third or fourth overall. The weather’s still a slight issue for him but for me, I rate him as one of the best young, up and coming talents in the UK and the best young rider in the Superbike class since Alex Lowes.”

What are his strengths? And weaknesses?
“He has incredible natural talent and his style suits a Superbike, that’s why he gelled with it straightaway. He’s phenomenally fast and has proven in qualifying that he’s as quick as anyone so if his race craft can improve slightly, particularly with the tyres, something we both need to work on, he’ll be winning races soon. With a few more Superbike races under his belt, the race wins will come and when they do, I don’t think there’ll stop.

“Riding in the wet is a definite weakness which, as we all know, in this country you need to overcome. He’s been working hard at it and is improving all the time so our plan for winter is to test in the UK as well as Spain and with high confidence in the dry, I think he’ll start transferring that confidence into the wet.”

You’re also running Supersport and Sidecar teams this year, has that made taken away some of your focus from the Superbike class?
“It may look like a huge animal from the outside but the sidecar team is both self-contained and self-funded. We offer mechanical assistance and Kawasaki offer parts assistance but aside from that, it looks after itself.

“A personal sponsor played a part in the Supersport bike becoming part of our effort this season so nothing’s been taken away from our Superbike efforts. The major difficulty has been running three bikes out of Ray’s workshop instead of two.

“The operations side of things has obviously increased with a lot more hospitality and a lot more guests but John Thornes has helped massively with the PR side of things. Our website’s grown, each rider has their own PR person in place and our social media has grown massively. Those things are important now and even though we have a relatively small budget compared to other teams, I think we’re setting the standards now and doing more than any other team.”

Now that you’re in the Showdown, what’s the target? Can you beat the likes of Byrne and Haslam over seven races?
“I firmly believe Luke will be on the podium in many of the races and that he’ll get his first win of the year during the Showdown. If the weather’s good at Assen, he’ll be in with a great chance of a win as it’s a circuit he really enjoys and excels at. After Oulton Park, he’s not frightened of anyone in the Showdown and we both feel that he can be a big part of the Championship over the final three rounds.”