Snetterton in Norfolk was the venue for round five of the Pirelli National Superstock championship and with a strong fourth place, Richard Kerr and the Dumfries-based AMD Motorsport team were able to consolidate their second place overall in the championship standings.
Picking up from where he left off in previous rounds, the 23-year old was immediately on the pace around the 2.96-mile Snetterton 300 circuit with Friday’s free practice sessions seeing him post the third fastest time on the factory-prepared CBR1000RR Honda Fireblade.
Saturday’s qualifying session saw him lap two tenths of a second quicker and it meant the Kilmacrennan, County Donegal rider lined up for Sunday’s 12-lap race in fourth place and at the head of the second row.
With his customary good start, Richard immediately gained a position off the line and for the first half of the race, no less than six riders disputed the lead with Dan Linfoot, Alastair Seeley, Alex Olsen, Billy McConnell and Joe Talbot all doing battle.
Less than a second covered them at one stage but as the race entered its second half, gaps began to appear and as Linfoot and Olsen broke away to fight for the win, Richard found himself fighting with McConnell for the final podium position. In the end, it was fellow Honda rider McConnell that prevailed, and Richard had to settle for fourth place on this occasion.
The result moved him on to 141 points, now 21 points behind race winner Linfoot.
Richard Kerr: “Both practice and qualifying went well but I knew then we didn’t have the pace that Dan or Alex did and running with them in the race was going to be hard. I thought I could get third though and am disappointed to have missed out, but I ran wide with three or four laps to go and that allowed Billy by. I wanted to try and have a go on the last lap, but he had it covered and so I had to accept fourth on this occasion. Fourth’s obviously better than a DNF and we’ve made good improvements with the bike whilst the gap to Dan is still only 21 points. We’ve two races each weekend at the next couple of rounds so we’ll look to claw back the gap there.”
Fraser Dykes, Team Owner: “We’re a wee bit disappointed to have finished fourth and not take a podium but that shows how far we’ve come as a team; this time last year, a fourth place would have felt like a win but when you get wins and regular podiums, you want them all the time! Richard was a bit disappointed to lose out on third to Billy and Dan has something more than everyone else at the moment, but it was a solid fourth place and it consolidates second place in the championship. Overall, we can’t complain, and it’ll be good to have two races at the next round at Brands Hatch so onwards and upwards.”
The sixth round of the series takes place at Brands Hatch, Kent on July 21-23.
Pictures by Tim Keeton – Impact Images Photography
Pirelli National Superstock Championship race (12 laps)
1 Dan Linfoot (Honda)
2 Alex Olsen (Honda)
3 Billy McConnell (Honda)
4 Richard Kerr (AMD Motorsport Honda)
5 Joe Talbot (Honda)
6 Alastair Seeley (BMW)
Championship positions (after five rounds)
1 Linfoot 162pts
2 Kerr 141pts
3 Talbot 108pts
4 Olsen 101pts
5 Bourne 93pts
