Honda Racing has experienced a mixed start to the triple-header final round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch in Kent this weekend, with wet weather conditions hampering progress in two of the three practice sessions and qualifying not going to plan for its riders Dan Linfoot and Jenny Tinmouth.
Starting from 20th place on the grid for this afternoon’s race, Linfoot was left on the back-foot slightly following crashes in two of the three practice sessions, where he missed out on valuable track time, and was left disappointed with qualifying, not making it into Q2 on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. Linfoot was unhurt following both falls.
During the 20-lap race Linfoot made progress with solid pace and times matching the top-six. Making up places lap after lap, the 27-year-old eventually crossed the line in 13th place. Josh Brookes claimed the race win and the 2015 championship, with two races remaining.
Meanwhile for Linfoot’s team-mate Tinmouth, it was another positive step on her Fireblade machine. The 36-year-old enjoyed solid practice sessions and set consistent lap times in all outings.
The Cheshire-based rider started race one from 27th place on the grid, but by the end of the first lap had moved up to 25th. A huge moment coming out of Graham Hill Bend nearly ended the race for the Honda rider, but managing to come out unscathed Tinmouth carried on and eventually crossed the line in 23rd place.
Tomorrow (Sunday) sees the two final races of the 2015 season take place, with the day’s first race at 1230 and the final race of the year at 1600.
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The weekend as a whole, until after race one, has been pretty negative. Yesterday in practice my first exit from the pits I crashed out in the rain and missed the rest of the session. The next outing was still wet, so it was nice to go back out and have a full run in the rain, as well as getting a better understanding of the CBR in those conditions. This morning didn’t start off too well, with another crash in practice on my fourth lap. It was a big, fast crash, which I thankfully walked away unhurt from, but the CBR needed a bit of work, so thanks to my crew for turning it around and getting ready in time for qualifying. I went into qualifying with what were essentially our first dry laps of the weekend, but I wasn’t able to progress into Q2, which meant a 20th starting place for the race.
"I had a lot of work to do in the race and managed to chip away and ended up finishing 13th, which isn’t great for my points and isn’t a position I wanted to finish in, but it was good progress from 20th. I had a consistent pace throughout and my times were matching the top-six, which is I where I hope to be tomorrow! We have a few small changes we’re making on the Fireblade for the races and two more chances to grab some final solid points."
"Although progress has been a little slow this weekend I’ve really enjoyed all the times out on-track! Today’s race was really good and I’m happy with my times. Two laps in I had a massive 
moment coming out of Graham Hill Bend and thought I was coming off, but luckily managed to land back in the seat and was able to carry on. After that I ended up on my own a little on-track and concentrated on putting in consistent laps and working on things I need to practice – learning lines and also getting on the throttle! I’m glad we have two more races tomorrow and really don’t want the season to end!"
"The start to the weekend has been difficult in the wet weather conditions and made more so, with the two crashes Dan has experienced. For qualifying we were instantly on the back-foot, which resulted in the 20th place race start. Dan was able to come 
through for the race, but as we know starting far back is difficult. We have a better grid position for tomorrow’s race in 11th place and there are still points to work towards. It’s been difficult and things seem not to be working out for us here, but there are two more races tomorrow and I’m confident he can pull something out of the bag then.
With Jenny we’re pleased, she’s stayed on the Fireblade this weekend come rain or shine and has got the laps out there. Our targets were to start and finish races and that’s what we’ve done today, so it’s another step in the right direction."
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