After a two week break following their Isle of Man TT Races campaign, Ivan Lintin and the Dafabet Devitt Racing team made their return to racing at the weekend with the Cock o’ the North Trophy races at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough. And it was a winning return for the Lincolnshire rider with two wins and no less than nine top five finishes.

With perfect weather conditions all weekend at the seaside venue, the Bardney resident took victory in both of the Supertwin races, where he was campaigning the new 2017 Z650 Kawasaki model, after close battles on each occasion with James Cowton and Adam McLean, whilst he finished a strong third in the feature Cock o’ the North Trophy race.

The team had spent considerable time with the Kawasaki ZX-10R since the TT, particularly with the electronics, in a bid to iron out some of the issues they’d encountered during their time competing on the 37 and ¾-mile Mountain Course. Lintin clearly felt the benefit with the changes as he again set a new personal best lap on a Kawasaki around the 2.43-mile Scarborough circuit during the feature race. Indeed, it proved to be an incredibly fast pace all round as race winner Dean Harrison broke the four-year old outright lap record.

Ivan had four more outings on the Kawasaki ZX-10R over the course of the two days and whilst Harrison was again untouchable, the 32-year old finished on the podium in all four of them, taking a second and three thirds. In what was an extremely busy weekend, Ivan also took a brace of fifths in the highly competitive Supersport 600cc races.

Ivan Lintin: 

“It was a really good, enjoyable weekend and with such good weather, everyone was setting some extremely fast lap times in what were very competitive races. I was really happy with the different electronics package we had on the ZX-10R and we’ve definitely made some major steps in the right direction, which bodes well for the rest of the year. Likewise with the new Twin where we were having our first proper run on it. It’s a new project for us as we look to the 2018 Internationals but we can forge ahead with development for the rest of the year so to only be a second outside my lap record more than shows the potential of the bike.”

“Each time I go out on the big bike, and the 600 for that matter, I’m setting personal bests around Oliver’s Mount and although the likes of Dean and Daley (Mathison) really upped the ante this weekend, I’m confident we’re heading the right way and with the likes of the Southern 100, Ulster GP and Scarborough Gold Cup still ahead of us, I’m sure we’re going to get some strong results.”

Ben Constable, Team Co-owner: 

“It was a really good weekend for Ivan and the team and whilst we weren’t going to stop Dean, it was important that we regrouped after a disappointing TT. We did that on all counts and the changes to the electronics on the big bike clearly worked as Ivan was fast all weekend, setting his quickest ever lap on a Kawasaki. It was nice to get some good mileage on the new Z650 as well with the old bike now having been retired and Ivan’s lap times were again very good so with more development and time, it should be even stronger. After a break from racing after the TT, it’s been great to get back to winning ways.”








Pictures by Pacemaker Press International