Mainwaring impresses on BSB debut
Added on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Mainwaring impresses on BSB debut
Carole Nash blogger Howie Mainwaring was delighted with his appearance in the British Superbike Championship at Cadwell Park last week, describing the experience as a real learning curve.
The British Superstock 1000 rider, who is sponsored by leading bike insurance broker Carole Nash, stood in for the injured Dave Johnson with the Team MAXXIS Adept Yamaha for round nine of the championship and managed to finish in the points on his first superbike ride in three years.
The race two result of a 14th place finish and two championship points was all the more impressive following a crash in Friday’s practice session which drastically cut down on the time that he had to get accustomed to the Yamaha YZF-R1.
And the effects of that fall showed in race one as the nervous rookie make a sluggish start out of his box, but he soon recovered and was on the pace, passing several riders to retake P18. The Cheshire rider defended his place and pushed hard through the 18 laps to cross the finish line in P17, just 0.315 seconds behind the P16 runner.
After a few changes to the bike by race technician Ray Stringer, Mainwaring was able to launch the R1 out of the box for race 2, climbing several places before the end of lap one. A confident ride by the young rider saw him claim his first ever championship point in his guest appearance for the team, which was then upgraded to two points following the disqualification of race winner Leon Camier.
Commenting on the experience, Mainwaring said: “This weekend was a real learning curve. I have not been on a Superbike since 2006, so getting on the R1 after riding a stock bike was a completely different riding experience.”
He added: “I would like to thank John and the team for giving me the opportunity to ride the MAXXIS Adept Yamaha.”
Team MAXXIS Adept Yamaha manager John Jameson added, “The grit and determination from Howie around one of the most intimidating circuits in the series was a real credit to him.
“We missed out on some track time, as we needed to make a few changes from Dave’s (Johnson) riding settings early on in the weekend and then rebuild part of the bike after the low-side in free practice, but we are pleased with the end result.”
Read more from Howie Mainwaring in his Biker Blog, only on Insidebikes.
