Strong start for McGuinness

Morecambe's John McGuinness got his 2007 British Supersport Championship campaign off to a great start on Easter Monday when he finished sixth in the opening round held at Brands Hatch. Riding the Padgett’s Motorcycles Honda, John came through from ninth on the grid in a race that was truncated by two red flags and, with the fifth fastest lap of the race, he was able to claim ten hard fought and well deserved points.

After a successful pre-season of testing, John was riding a brand new machine for round 1 and despite it never having turned a wheel in anger, he was immediately on the pace. He was never outside of the top ten in either free practice or qualifying and with a time of 1m30.413s in the first qualifying session he was able to claim ninth on the grid. However, he was slightly disappointed with this as his efforts to go quicker in the final session were thwarted by a combination of traffic and his own mistake.
Having set personal bests in the first and second sectors, he made a slight error on his final qualifying lap and ran off the track at Stirling's.
Nevertheless, he was well in contention going into the 18-lap race.

With glorious conditions at the Kent venue, John made a strong start and was up to 7th straightaway although by lap 3 he had been relegated to 10th.
Regrouping, he fought his way back up to 8th when the red flag came out after race leader Michael Laverty crashed out, also taking John's teammate, Dennis Hobbs, with him. The race was re-started and would be decided over an 8-lap straight race. Again, John suffered in the early laps and dropped back to 11th but with a number of aggressive, yet fair, overtaking manoeuvres he had fought his way up to 7th, less than a second behind the fifth placed rider when the red flag came out again. With runner-up Martin Jessopp being disqualified due to a post-race inspection, John was promoted to sixth, just rewards for his stirling efforts.

Speaking immediately after the race, John commented:

"On the one hand I'm pleased with sixth but on the other hand I'm not. I got the engine bogged down on the re-start and got left behind with a few people in front of me who probably shouldn't. I had a really good race set-up though and felt very strong in various parts of the circuit so with the bike working well I was able to close the gaps on the riders in front of me. The pace was hot but I got stuck in and put in some strong moves which I haven't done for a few years and 4th was definitely on the cards. Obviously getting promoted was a bonus but I feel that sixth is more reflective of how competitive we've been and to finish this high in my first Supersport race for a number of years is very pleasing. The bike is absolutely tremendous, probably a bit faster than the rider at the moment, and the team have worked brilliantly all weekend so we can go to Thruxton in good shape."

There's no respite for John with Round 2 of the British Supersport Championship taking place at Thruxton, Hampshire this weekend, Sunday April 15th.

Phil Wain
Freelance PR