Dan Linfoot 'under no illusions' ahead of British Superbike return

Author: Oli Rushby Pics: Impact Images Posted: 18 Jun 2015

Dan Linfoot has said he is under no illusions ahead of his return to the British Superbike Championship at Snetterton this weekend.

The Honda Racing man broke his wrist in an accident during practice for the second round of the season at Brands Hatch back in April after an impressive performance in which he fought Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne for victory at Donington Park just two weeks previous.

The injury ruled the Wetherby rider out of contention for the Brands and Oulton rounds but after an intense few months of rehabilitation, he is back and raring to go ahead as the season gets set to resume at Snetterton this weekend. 

“The wrist is pretty good. I think it’s about 90% back to normal, there’s a little bit of tightness stopping it being 100%,” said Linfoot speaking to Bike Social.  “In terms of riding it feels good, I’ve been doing a bit of road riding and a few track days just to see how it is. I know riding a superbike is going to be a bit different but so far so good.

Linfoot got a brief outing on his Honda Racing CBR1000RR Fireblade in last months Snetterton test, but admits he was still a little rusty at this point.

“It was nice to be able to do a few laps in the test a few weeks ago just to get my head back into it but at that point I was still very raw and in a bit of pain. I’m expecting it to be a lot different tomorrow and I can focus on what I need to do to kick-start my championship.

“I’ve got to get out there tomorrow and see what sort of condition I’m in. I’ve been training as hard as I was pre-season so in terms of that I feel as good as ever but you never know how the hand will be until I’m out there pushing on. In terms of my head and my aims, I just want to come away from this weekend with two finishes as strong as I can. If it’s top tens, or top sixes then great I want to score the maximum I can to put myself in the best possible position for later in the year. We’ll have to see, I could be strong and comfortable or I could be not so great we’ll have to wait and see.”

Sitting 11^th in the championship standings, some 76 points behind championship leader James Ellison, Linfoot knows he’s got his work cut out but the British Superbike Showdown format could play into his hands…

“British Superbike is very strong and if you’re half a second off you’re out of the top ten so it’s difficult,” he continued. “I’m not focusing on what other people are doing, I’m focusing on my own thing, my own weekend and doing the best job we can to put ourselves in a position to score as many points as we can on Sunday. It’s my first round back, there are still six rounds before the showdown cut-off so it’s important for me to build back up to scoring strong points.

“I’m under no illusions, I don’t expect to be scoring podiums this weekend but if I can get the ball rolling again and have two strong finishes and start building back up to being on the podium then that’s where we need to be to be in the showdown come September.”

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