Richard Kerr closes gap in Superstock Championship

With five rounds to go in the Pirelli National Superstock Championship, Richard Kerr has closed the gap at the top of the standings to ten points.

Round six at the weekend saw AMD Motorsport’s Kerr take a brace of fourth place finishes on his Honda Fireblade to cut the deficit to championship leader Dan Linfoot.

Kerr and the Dumfries-based team started well with a lap of 1’26.880s putting him third fastest overall in Friday’s free practice sessions.

With rain threatening to fall during Saturday morning’s qualifying session, Kerr was unable to lap quicker. Indeed, a time of 1’27.259s resulted in sixth place and a second row start for the afternoon’s 12-lap race.

New Irish record qualifies Mona McSharry for 2024 Olympic Games

Mona McSharry significantly lowered the Irish 100m breaststroke record at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan to book her spot at next year's Olympic Games

The rain came with a vengeance for the race with Kerr slotting into fifth on the lap one and this was where he remained until the fifth lap when he moved up to fourth.

With visibility difficult and with slightly less pace than the leading three riders, Kerr settled for fourth but with championship leader Dan Linfoot crashing out, he closed the gap in the title race.

Sunday’s race, held over the slightly longer distance of 14 laps, was held in good, dry conditions with Richard starting from fourth place and that was the position he ran in during the early stages. He briefly moved up to third on lap four only to be shuffled back to fourth two laps later and as the race continued, he lost ground to the leading three riders, Linfoot, Alex Olsen and Alastair Seeley.

Kerr ended up having quite a lonely ride for his second fourth place of the weekend but the results from the two races meant he cut Linfoot’s lead in the championship from 21 points to ten.

“I enjoyed Saturday’s wet race, but I didn’t have the pace of the fast boys,” Kerr said.

“I felt confident of running with them, but the bike wasn’t letting me due to a lack of rear grip so I was hoping someone in front of me would tip off and promote me onto the podium.

“That didn’t happen but with Dan crashing out, it turned out to be a good result for me. I was hoping to capitalise on that in Sunday’s race, but, like the wet, I didn’t have the pace in the dry to do any better than fourth.

“The team worked hard as always but I just couldn’t find the sweet spot although the gap to Dan is smaller than what it was when we arrived and there are plenty of races to go.”

The next round takes place at Thruxton, Hampshire on August 11-13.