Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot admitted to shedding tears after being denied a race win in the opening MCE British Superbike race at Oulton Park but made up for it with victory in the second leg.
Just a week after his maiden victory, Linfoot fought hard to nab the second-race win from JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam and came so close to doing the double.
In race one, the Yorkshireman had a nine-second advantage over the rest of the podium contenders, but his engine went bang at Island and he missed out on the victory in the wet conditions.
But the rain showers ceased, race two was held in dry conditions and Linfoot had a strong start, locked in a fight with Haslam for maximum points. In the end a tiny 0.05s separated the riders crossing the line with Linfoot taking his second BSB career win.
It is also the first top step finish for the new Fireblade in dry conditions and Linfoot proved he had the pace to challenge for wins in the wet and on a dry track too.
But a few months earlier at the circuit Linfoot came away with a zero points haul, even without any crashes and had issues with the throttle connection and engine braking. But those problems have been resolved and he is making head-way with the new machine.
“Earlier in the year Oulton was a disastrous round for us as it was the first track that we have gone to that was really up and down and struggled massively with throttle connection and engine braking and finished 16 in both races after not even crashing,” said Linfoot, speaking to bikesportnews.com
“Now half a year later I could have won both races if the engine could have held together in race one. The win at Silverstone gave me some confidence and had a steady Friday and improved a lot on Saturday and the wet race one I had a commanding lead and felt really good with the wet bike and it let go with a few to go.
“I cried today because I felt it was not happening and the guys put another motor in and we started from sixth and won the thing. To be honest I was so determined I would have sent the thing to the moon before finishing second in that race as was so upset from race one. Hopefully we are starting to reap the reward and find some consistency.”
