Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s Howie Mainwaring set the second quickest time in a very wet MCE British Superbike second free practice session at Oulton Park this afternoon, with a 1’53.528.
The tall Frodsham rider experienced problems with the Gearbox and electronics on his ZX-10R in the opening free practice outing in the dry this morning, but that was all solved by FP2 and Mainwaring was able to take advantage of the wet conditions and set some fast laps in rain.
The forecast is meant to be raining and cold tomorrow and Mainwaring is feeling confident that he can brave the conditions and aim for a front row during qualifying on Sunday.
“This morning I think we would have been comfortable in the dry and we had a few issues with the gearbox and electronic problems, so we couldn’t really do what we wanted to do, and we have tried a few things that were alien to us,” said Mainwaring, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
“But it started to rain and I felt comfortable on the bike and we found a bit of life in there again. I felt it was irrelevant that it was raining and we are getting on with the rain and it’s not too bad.
“If it is dry tomorrow I want to get in the top ten, if it rains and with the setup that we have got I am confident that we can get on the front row. We have a few tiny changes to make from FP2 to FP3 and we were struggling a bit with balance, but that is all sorted now.”
