Richard Kerr recovers from early setback to stay in Championship hunt at Cadwell

Richard Kerr came from the back of the field to tenth at Cadwell Park on Monday to keep his Pirelli National Superstock Championship hopes alive.

Monday’s heroic fightback at round eight of the Championship sees the Kilmacrennan rider maintain second spot in the standings and stay in the title hunt.

Picking up from where he left off at the previous round at Thruxton, where he scored two podiums, the AMD Motorsport rider was immediately on the pace at Cadwell and, after recording the second fastest time in practice, he took the same position in Saturday’s qualifying session behind fellow Honda rider Billy McConnell.

That gave Kerr a front row position, crucial for the tight and twisty 2.18-mile Lincolnshire circuit.

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Kerr’s race was immediately compromised when he got caught up in a first corner melee which saw Ashley Beech crash out and force several riders take to the grass.

Kerr dropped more than 20 places before he set about making his way up the board again.

Lapping, as expected, at a similar pace to the leaders, Kerr moved up into the points on lap five and grabbed a top ten position on the 12th lap when he overhauled Simon Reid.

The six points for tenth sees Kerr stay second, 27 points behind Championship leader Dan Linfoot, who finished second.

“I’m absolutely gutted with the outcome as we had the pace all weekend to fight for the win and the team did a great job in giving me the bike to do the job,” Kerr said.

“Unfortunately, I had a coming together with another rider that crashed at turn one and with nowhere to go, I ended up going onto the grass and lost a lot of time. I was lucky to stay on, but the impact bent my handlebar and broke the bodywork, but I regrouped and made my way back up to tenth place, so we’ll take the points and look forward to the next round.”

Fraser Dykes, team owner of AMD Motorsport, hailed Kerr’s performance.

He said: “Coming through to tenth with a bent handlebar was some ride and slight compensation for the ground lost in the championship but with six races to go in the championship we are very much still in it.”

The next round of the Championship takes place at Oulton Park from September 15-17.