Mar-Train Racing make their Macau Grand Prix debut this weekend as they sign off on their third term as Yamaha UK’s official road race team.

After missing out on the Isle of Man TT races in June team boss Tim Martin was keen to add another event to the calendar and none was more appealing than the iconic two and four wheel motorsport event in East Asia.

Situated just forty miles West of Hong Kong it is a popular venue for pure road racers with Armco barriers and stone walls lining the 3.8 mile street circuit. Dan Kneen scored a ninth place finish at the event in 2012 but he has his sights set on the podium this time around on his YZF-R1M Yamaha.


Rider – Dan Kneen

“There are so many fast guys on the grid this year, many of whom are specialists around Macau so to even get a top six will be challenging. That said I think the R1M will be suited to a lot of the circuit, it turns really well on the front end and you spend a lot of time in one gear which will suit its power delivery. I haven’t been for a couple of years but we have a few sessions to get up to speed so I’m looking forward to ending a difficult year on a high for Mar-Train and Yamaha UK.”

Team Principal – Tim Martin

“It was important for us to get out racing again for our sponsors and for YMUK, Macau is an event which has always been on the radar for me so I am excited that things finally fell into place to allow us to go. Whilst we are newcomers to the event Dan knows the circuit so I am confident we can put on a good show and show how competitive the R1M package is now. Dan proved at the UGP that he can mix it with the top guys so there is no reason why we cannot come away with a good result to end the season.”


Practice and qualifying is held on Thursday and Friday with the twelve lap 50th Anniversary Macau Grand Prix live on BT Sport 3 on Saturday morning, 19th November, at 07:30 GMT.

Dan Kneen has been steadily getting up to speed on his return to the Macau Grand Prix this week as he builds up to tomorrows twelve lap race. After working on stability issues between qualifying sessions one and two the Manx man improved his lap time by almost three seconds to qualify 11th, just behind previous winner Ian Hutchinson.

With one more warm up session still to come Kneen is confident he can make further improvements to work his way up the leader board and finish the 2016 season on a high for Mar-Train and Yamaha UK.

Dan Kneen

“That was a lot better today, the bike was turning a lot better in sector two and I was able to hit apexes I couldn’t in Q1. Andy, Scott and Connor or doing a mega job improving the bike, we started with no data obviously as it is a new bike and the team haven’t been here before so we are now going in the right direction. We can make another few changes for warm up and hopefully I can get away with the lead pack and see where we end up, the pace of the top ten guys is phenomenal so it is going to be a tough race!”

The race will be shown live on BT Sport 3 at 07:45 GMT 19th November.