Isle of Man TT legend McGuinness secures points after 'tough' weekend
Wednesday 14 September 2011
TT
TT legend John McGuinness salvaged a points finish from a ‘tough weekend’ in the British National Superstock 1000cc Championship.
The 17-times TT winner avoided problems during the incident-packed race on Sunday at Donington to finish 12th.
McGuinness admitted he had been too cautious on the opening lap and had to be content with points at the end of a ‘scrappy race’.
The weekend started steadily for the Padgetts Honda rider, taking 15th in the opening qualifying session. He took over half a second off his time in the second and final session and not only did he jump up the order to 12th place, he also closed the gap to pole position from 1.7s to 1.1s.
The race proved to be tough for everyone and was made more difficult for McGuinness by a sluggish start seeing him end the first lap in 15th, the outcome of being overhauled by a number of riders in the first two corners.
The pace car was soon out due to an incident and when it pulled in on lap 4, McGuinness found himself shuffled back further to 17th. Another safety car period took place between laps 9 and 12 and when the race resumed McGuinness was able to start advancing forward and get in among the points on lap 13.
With more incidents taking place in the final two laps, McGuinness jumped further up the order and his hard work was rewarded with 12th place and 4 points.
McGuinness said:
“It's been a tough weekend for me and it took me a while to get dialled in during practice which was why I was further back than I would have liked in first qualifying.”
“I got my head down for Q2 though and moved up inside the top 12 and was only a second off the pole position, so I was certainly closer to the ball park.”
“With the race being so late in the day, we all had a long wait and there was a lot of testosterone out there on the grid when the lights went green and I was just too cautious on the first lap.”
“In this class, if you snooze, you lose and I had a poor couple of corners on the opening lap and dropped way back so it left me with a lot of work to do. There was also a lot of carnage out there from start to finish, and that could be seen with a third of the grid failing to finish!”
“I settled back into the race after my poor first lap, although with all the safety car periods it was hard to get into a decent rhythm. I kept plugging away and moved forward as best I could. Marshall Neill's bike in front of me looked like it was leaking a bit of oil so I just tried to keep out of trouble and bring the bike home.”
“It was a scrappy race all round, but I stayed upright and got some points so we'll look forward now to the rest of the season. I've still got some big meetings coming up so there's still plenty to aim for.”
McGuinness is back on the roads next, racing in the International Gold Cup, Oliver's Mount, Scarborough, this weekend.