Howie speeds up for ninth
Aylesford’s Howie Mainwaring-Smart bagged a top 10 finish from race two of the British Superbike Championship round at Knockhill last weekend.
Mainwaring-Smart had endured a tough qualifying session in Scotland, finishing 22nd and lining up on the eighth row of the grid.
A 20th-place finish during the opening race, in the dry, was bettered during a wet second outing.
While Mainwaring-Smart’s Smith Racing team-mate Jakub Smrz crashed out early on, the Kent rider climbed his way up from 22nd on his BMW to claim his best finish of the season, in ninth.
Sittingbourne’s Shane Byrne, meanwhile, bounced back from an opening-race crash with a win at the second attempt.
The Ducati racer took victory in race two following a thrilling scrap and thanked his team for their efforts after two falls during the weekend.
He said: “It was a tricky weekend as I’ve tipped off twice and given the whole Be Wiser Ducati team more work than they’ve deserved.”
The gap between four-time champion Byrne and Leon Haslam in the rider standings is now down to 13 points after four rounds.
Earlier in the weekend, Byrne had shown his class around the wet circuit to claim pole position – just 0.001sec ahead of Jason O’Halloran.
Haslam and Dan Linfoot battled for the lead in race one as Byrne crashed out at the hairpin on lap four, taking fellow Kent rider Jake Dixon with him.
He started 11th on the grid in race two but passed championship leader Haslam and polesitter Linfoot during the battle for the lead to claim the win, 1.8-sec ahead of Kawasaki rider James Ellison.
Byrne said: “It was a difficult second race. Before we started, one of my mechanics said to me it’s a long race, you are starting from the fourth row, there are a lot of chances for things to go wrong.
“I got to second quite quickly, I got in the lead and then Leon passed me. I followed him for a bit and I felt happy there, then Dan came past and I thought this isn’t in the plan.
“I had a few little issues to deal with and made a few mistakes. With all the work that I gave the team this weekend, they deserved that win.”
The next round is at Snetterton on July 10.