McManus on the pace but without reward at Silverstone

Eugene McManus had the pace to run at the front of Round One of the British Supersport Championship but unfortunately came away with two DNFs.

Returning from a wildcard in World Supersport Eugene McManus was looking forward to starting the Quattro Plant British Supersport Championship this year. McManus has stayed with the Completely Motorbikes/Affinity Sports Academy team although stepped up from the Junior Superstock class of last year.

Free Practice

The weekend got off to its customary start with two free practice sessions on the Friday.

The track was dry and sunny and McManus was able to secure the 8th fastest time despite limited experience on his new Kawasaki machine for this year. In FP2 McManus improved to finish 6th overall.

Qualifying

Saturday morning brought more good weather to the Silverstone National Circuit making it a perfect start for the riders to begin the season.

McManus was running as high as third in the timesheets at one stage of the 30-minute session. In the end, he had to settle for a very respectable 7th after completing 19 laps of the circuit with a best lap time of 56.850. He was just two tenths from a front-row start.

Race One

Starting from the head of row three, McManus did not make the best of starts to this first 18-lap race of the season. He slipped from his grid position of seventh down to eleventh but quickly recovered to cross the start-finish line eighth after one lap. On the second he recovered to seventh and was setting a similar pace to the race leaders.

Unfortunately, a small error on lap four saw him high side off the Kawasaki machine and out of the race.

Race Two

McManus made a much better start in the second race leaping from sixth on the grid into fourth in the first corner before slotting into fifth in the leading group.

The number 15 battled early on for fourth although for the second time this weekend his race was going to be cut short.

McManus ran wide and another rider look to slip inside. Unsighted McManus moved across to recover his racing line and the two touched. A racing incident, unfortunately, they crashed out but thankfully both were unhurt.

Eugene McManus said,” I am really pleased with the pace we have on the bike. We have not had much time to get used to it, so it is great to be feeling so comfortable already. A big thank you to the team Completely Motorbikes / Affinity Sports Academy for that side of things. Obviously, the results didn’t come this weekend but we were running in the top five in the races so it looks good for the next rounds.”