After the final qualifying session at Losail this morning, the Honda TT Legends team will start tomorrow’s Doha Eight-Hours from ninth on the grid. John McGuinness, Keith Amor and stand-in rider Glen Richards each completed a second 30-minute stint on the Honda Fireblade in a bid to improve on yesterday’s lap times.
All three riders managed this task, with Richards lapping the quickest. Cameron Donald’s replacement posted a 2'01.476 lap in the final stint to bring the team’s overall combined time up to 2'03.381 – enough to qualify in the top ten in a field of 26 teams.
"I’m feeling pretty good. I have a few little issues with my hands but we’ll try some different grips tomorrow maybe. Apart from that, the bike is working well and I felt better on it today than yesterday. It’s going to be a hard race for sure but then endurance races are always hard. We’ve just done a really good pit practice, so we’ll just get our heads down in the race and see what happens," said Richards.
McGuinness added: "We’re ninth overall on the grid but as we’ve seen in World Endurance qualifying is not the most important thing, it’s where we are at the end of eight hours and who knows how many laps! Glen has done some good times and I’ve been half a second quicker today so I’m happy with that.
"It’s a tough track and it’s going to be a tough race but I’m looking forward to it. I want to bring the bike home safe, score some points, maybe go up a bit in the championship and end the season as happy chaps."
