Tarran Mackenzie secured a spot in the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Showdown despite a ‘mid-season blip’ which saw the young Scotsman miss the podium from Thruxton onwards.

The McAMS Yamaha rider started the season strongly, leading after round one and his work early doors meant he was able to stay in contention even with injury.

Mackenzie’s first trip to Oulton proved tough but this weekend he knew where he had to finish and managed to hold on to a top-six spot even after crashing in qualifying one yesterday.

“It was a tough one because on Friday I didn’t have a very good feeling and then I didn’t actually get to try what we did to improve it in FP3 as the weather was bad. I then crashed in qualifying so it wasn’t the smoothest of weekends,” said Mackenzie.

“All three races were solid, I gained valuable knowledge in each one of those which we could look at the data and improve the bike from there, so in race three the bike was the best it’s been all weekend and I felt like I put together a good race. We weren’t near the podium but I felt I got back into a rhythm and had a good feeling with the bike.

Getting into the Showdown is great, for both myself and the team as I feel we deserve to after the season we’ve had. I had a bit of a mid-season blip with the injury but I’m happy to be in the title fight and now we can get ready for the next three rounds.”

Team boss Steve Rodgers is proud of Mackenzie, who is in his second season with the team, and believes they have a genuine chance of fighting for the title.

“Taz managed to secure his place in the Showdown, which he fully deserves and I’m so proud of him and the team,” said Rodgers.

“We are only 33 points off the title lead so the championship is not over for us, if we can return to the form we saw earlier this year then there’s no reason we can’t challenge to be BSB champions.”