Following a solid opening round at Silverstone and a successful one-day test at Oulton Park last week, the Honda Racing team returns to the Cheshire track this Bank Holiday weekend (30 April – 2 May) confident for the second round of the MCE British Superbike Championship.
A solid weekend at the opening round of the BSB championship saw strong performances from Honda’s trio of riders Dan Linfoot, Jenny Tinmouth and Jason O’Halloran. Both Linfoot and O’Halloran were fighting in the top group during both races aboard their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade machines. Team-mate Tinmouth also enjoyed a good weekend knocking 1.6 seconds off her lap times, something she hopes to take to her home circuit this weekend.
During the test at the 4.332km Cheshire track last week, the Honda team used the time to work on further developments to the Fireblade machine and each rider worked through a number of different settings to fine-tune throughout the day.
Yorkshireman Linfoot finished the final session of the day overall third fastest, after running P1 for some time in the early stages, while the O’Show finished the day eighth fastest and Tinmouth continued to work on her lap times.
Live timing of round two will be available from britishsuperbike.com/live-timing/
For all the news and information on the team over the weekend check out the team’s Facebook page or follow on Twitter @HondaRacingBSB
2016 MCE British Superbike Championship, round two
Oulton Park, Cheshire
Event schedule
Saturday 30 April
1010 – 1055 – FP1
1440 – 1525 – FP2
Sunday 1 May
1200 – 1245 – FP3
1405 – 1423 – Q1
1430 – 1442 – Q2
1449 – Superpole
Monday 2 May
0930 – 0945 – Warm up
1330 – Race one (18 laps 77.976km)
1630 – Race two (18 laps 77.976km)
Following the positive test at Oulton Park last week I’m feeling quietly confident for the weekend ahead. All three riders are really enjoying their time on the Fireblade and we have received encouraging feedback from the winter development, and all the hard work the team has put in. After the test we have turned another corner and I’m really looking forward to seeing the results after each race on Monday. Dan, Jenny and Jason are all looking forward to both races and with a good practice and qualifying, and lady luck on our side I hope we can have a good weekend.
Havier Beltran – Honda Racing team manager
We had a fairly decent test at Oulton last week and it was good to have a run there before the weekend. I finished third overall, which was positive and had a good lap time, so I’m already positive and hope we can continue the good feeling into the weekend. I’m not sure what the weather will throw at us, so just hoping for two dry races and also for qualifying so hopefully we can have the opportunity for the one lap special! Ideally I want to finish as close to the podium as possible, or on it and bring home some solid points.
Dan Linfoot / #4
I always look forward to Oulton Park, it’s my home round so it’s always very special to me and it’s a circuit I always enjoy riding. I had a good test there last Friday with the team, so just looking forward to getting out there for the race weekend now. We had a good first round at Silverstone where I improved my lap times and was 1.6 seconds faster than last year, so am really happy with that. I’m looking forward to taking the positives now to Oulton and can’t wait to race and see all the fans there for the Bank Holiday weekend.
Jenny Tinmouth / #20
I’m looking forward to round two this weekend, I always enjoy riding at Oulton Park, it’s a great circuit and the atmosphere with the crowd is always good. I have enjoyed past results there and have happy memories from riding the Fireblade at the races last year. We had a really positive test last week and it was great to be able to get out on the track a week before the round. We made a slight improvement with the machine and I feel we’ve now got good pace for the weekend and hopefully we’ll be able to pick up where we left off at Silverstone, build on that result and see if we can get on the podium sooner rather than later.
Jason O’Halloran / #22
