Dan Linfoot kicked off Honda Racing’s 2018 Bennetts British Superbike Championship campaign in fine style today at Donington Park, placing his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade on the podium finishing race two in third place. Teammate Jason O’Halloran added further points to his weekend tally crossing the line ninth.

With tricky conditions across the weekend and weather having disrupted the schedule, the second race got underway with blue skies and a dry track. Honda’s duo lined up on the grid with Linfoot fifth and O’Halloran sixth, but it was Linfoot who stormed into second place during the early stages.

Over the 18-lap race the Yorkshireman kept his CBR in podium contention and settled into a good rhythm at the Leicestershire circuit pulling away from the pack. Dropping to third mid-race, the 29-year old kept the podium clear in his sights and crossed the line 8.228 seconds ahead of fourth place. Linfoot’s results from the weekend see him third in the championship standings with 29 points.

Meanwhile it was a slightly frustrating race for teammate O’Halloran who struggled with feeling aboard his Fireblade. Crossing the line ninth The O’Show collected further valuable points and leaves the opening round eighth in the championship.

The team will now prepare the Fireblades for the second round, which takes place in ten days time at Brands Hatch (13-15 April).

#4 - Dan Linfoot

That was just what we needed in terms of points and a solid start to the year, where I have not crashed, not put the team back and haven’t dented my confidence. I’m really happy now going into round two with a fourth and a third behind us, as well as a decent championship position - with a bit of confidence back too. I’m feeling really good in myself and also with the Fireblade, we’re in a good place. The conditions out there were a little sketchy, I made a brave move on the first lap off the start, and to be honest I thought I was going down as I’d over-cooked it. Thankfully I managed to get stopped and when I looked up I saw Brad and thought, 'lets do this!' It took me a few laps to see where the grip was and wasn’t, and I got settled into a good rhythm. Halfway through I started to drop off a little and Haslam passed me, but all I wanted to do was focus on making sure I was on the podium, so I concentrated on that for the end of the race. A huge thanks to the team for all their hard work, it’s onwards and upwards now and I’m looking forward to getting to Brands Hatch and seeing what we can do there.


#22 - Jason O'Halloran

After the race I’m a little disappointed with ninth place if I’m honest. I struggled a little within the group and getting out of corners, which was frustrating but I know we can learn from it and move on. We have a bit of a way to come when we’re faced with dodgy conditions and we do have some work to do to get a better feeling with the CBR; in the dry we showed we do have good pace and hopefully the next few weeks the weather will start to dry up! The track and conditions were good in the end, I didn’t think this morning I would be saying that, but it turned out OK. There were a few wet patches around the circuit and it was hard to pass at times as it was still a single line, but towards the end it was good. Huge congratulations to Dan on his podium, it’s great for him and the team, and really kicks off the season well – I know it won’t be long until we’re challenging for podiums.



Havier Beltran - Honda Racing team manager

We’re leaving the first round on the podium with Dan finishing third and I’m so happy to be in that position this early on in the championship. So huge congratulations to him and also the team; a great job all round! We’ve had unbelievably tricky conditions here all weekend and we got so lucky this afternoon. A great job to MSV for the schedule changes today, they managed to get 14 out of 16 races, I think, so a big credit to them. I know we had some issues with both Dan and Jason’s CBRs out there, so we need to look into those back at the workshop ahead of Brands Hatch. I’m pleased to come away this weekend with a podium and solid points for both boys, especially in the conditions we’ve had. We’ll now arrive at the second round with confidence and a positive opening round behind us.