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Straight from finishing 5th at the Bol d'Or 24-Hour race, Morecambe's John McGuinness got his British short circuit season underway on Easter Monday when he placed a fine 10th in the opening round of the National 1000cc Superstock Championship. Held on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, McGuinness ran a strong pace all weekend on his Padgetts Honda and claimed a hard earned six points in what promises to be another tough, competitive year in the class.
With 49 riders trying to qualify around the 1.2-mile circuit, the sessions were split into 2 and John was constantly in the top 6 in his particular group. Fourth after the first 25-minute session, John was able to take three tenths of a second off his time in Sunday's second and final session and a time of 47.378s placed him fifth overall in his group. However, when the times for the two groups were combined he found himself in 13th place on the grid although this did give him the more favoured left hand side of the circuit.
Conditions on race day were again perfect and a great start saw John immediately leap forward 3 places from his qualifying position to move up inside the top ten. Just as the race was beginning to get into its stride though, the red flag was out due to an incident and the race was stopped after just 4 laps. On the re-run, shortened to 16 laps, John made a carbon copy start although it proved to be a rather uneventful race as he stayed in 10th from beginning to end. However, he was right on the back of a 4-rider scrap for 7th and well in contention so it was certainly a strong result in what is always one of the hardest fought classes in the series.
Talking later, a pleased John said; "I'm pleased with how the race went today and to finish inside the top ten and be so close to the top 5 bodes well for the rest of the year. I was happy with my pace throughout the weekend and made a mega start in both the original start and in the re-run, which was extremely pleasing as that's something I haven't always done in recent times. The bike was flying and my lap times were consistent all the way to the end so to be only 4 seconds off 5th at the end of the race was satisfying. It already looks like it's going to be another extremely tough year in the class but I'm confident I'll be there or thereabouts at all of the rounds I contest."
