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| Picture by Glynne Lewis |
Morecambe’s John McGuinness continued his run of points-scoring finishes on Sunday when he finished in 13th place at the ninth round of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship. Held in perfect, sunny conditions at Brands Hatch in Kent, the Padgetts Honda ace fought his way through the pack after a sluggish first lap and he was rewarded with three hard-earned Championship points.
Eighth overall after first qualifying on Saturday, John shaved over three tenths of a second off his time in the afternoon’s final session but such was the ferocity and closeness of the on-track action, he actually slipped back to 11th overall and so lined up for the 15-lap race on the third row of the grid.
Expecting a tough race, the first laps were exactly that for John as he got pushed back to 19th after the usual bumping and barging around Paddock Hill and Druids bends. By half race distance, he had moved up to 16th and was on the edge of the points when the safety car came out on lap 9 for an incident involving John’s good friend Steve Brogan.
Four laps later, the safety car pulled in and John immediately moved up to 14th, a position he held over the final three laps. However, with 12th place finisher Leon Morris being excluded following a post-race technical inspection, hewas promoted up the order to 13th.
Speaking afterwards, John said: “I’ve really enjoyed riding the bike this weekend and felt good out on track but whilst I could do good, competitive lap times when I was circulating on my own, it was really hard work in the race conditions. A lot of the riders are like pint-sized jockeys and they’re slow in the corners but fast down the straights, which really compromised my race.
“The first lap was a bit of a nightmare and it’s amazing no-one went down but I kept it upright and then tried as hard as I could to get back in the top fifteen. A few of the boys crashed out, which handed me a couple of positions, and I ended up in 13th. Not ideal, admittedly, but it’s always good to race on the GP track and, like I say, I’ve enjoyed my riding over the last couple of days.
“I’m looking forward to Japan now and I’ll be hoping we can score a good result in the World Endurance Championship race for the Honda TT Legends team.”
John now heads for Suzuka, Japan where’ll line up once more for the Honda TT Legends team for the prestigious 8-Hour World Endurance Championship event.
Report by Phil Wain