The first round of the 2010 British Superbike Championship blasted into top gear yesterday at Brands Hatch.

25,000 race starved fans arrived at the Kent circuit anxious to see their hero’s engaging in battle around the 1 mile Indy track, a circuit renown for spectacular close racing where riders have to ride on the edge to be competitive and have to lap in 46 seconds to be anywhere near the sharp end.

For the Motorpoint Yamaha team of Neil Hodgson and Dan Linfoot a weekend of missed opportunities and lucky escapes where the order of the day.

Dan Linfoot after securing a fantastic front row start did not get the best from his start position and had to battle hard to make places, finishing in a fine 8th position but ruing the difficult early laps.

In the second race Dan started from the 3rd row with the new qualifying format (second grid line up from riders fastest lap in first race) and had a much stronger pace, he was looking good for a top 5 position when a collision with Chris Walker shortened his race and put an end to his weekend.

Neil Hodgson had a weekend to forget, the morning warm up session saw Neil crash out, aggravating the shoulder he has been treating all winter, a decision was made for Neil to sit out the two races and work on getting fit for the Thruxton races in two weeks time.



Dan Linfoot 8th race one DNF race two

“I guess that was a sharp learning curve! I have to admit I was nervous for the first race, the front row is pretty scary for your first time and I definitely rode the early laps too carefully, losing time in the early laps around a track like this makes it impossible to recover. The second race was much better, my pace was strong and I reckon I had a chance at a top 5 position but for tangling with Chris Walker! With the new rules of dropping your two worse scores I guess we are still OK and I feel like I have learned a lot”



Neil Hodgson DNS

“I feel pretty bad for all my team, they have all worked so hard trying to get me going and then today I crash their bike! I got caught out with the notorious left hand corner and paid the penalty for not letting the tyre get enough heat in it.

My shoulder took the whole impact and left me with no option but to sit out today, pretty miserable start to the year but hopefully we can get back on it at Thruxton”



Rob Mac

“This is a long Championship and we will use this weekend as character building! For Neil it was painful, for Dan it was frustrating and for me Expensive! We came away with some real positives, Dan’s pace is good enough for a front row and a podium result if we can get him chilled out and Neil made some promising steps forward before his crash. Brands Indy is probably the toughest track to start the series with its 46 second lap demanding 110% commitment and confidence; we will lick our wounds and be back stronger in two weeks”