Solid weekend for Richard Kerr at Silverstone

Richard Kerr says he’s aiming for the high places in the 2022 Pirelli National Superstock Championship.

Kerr and the AMD Motorsport team began their campaign at the weekend at Silverstone with Kerr having a best finish of 10th and earning points in the two races.

The Kilmacrennan man, who is continuing on a Honda Fireblade this year, described the weekend as ’solid’.

He was 10th on Friday and 14th on Sunday to add eight points to his tally.

Richard Kerr: “I got a bit lucky with Saturday’s result with a couple of riders ahead of me crashing and I’ve been struggling a bit with the new shock we’re running,” Kerr said.

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“We didn’t get much testing done so have had to be doing it this weekend but we’ve been making improvements all the time and how the bike ended was totally different to the set up we started with. It’s just a question of understanding it fully but we’re moving in the right direction.

“I wouldn’t say I’m happy with eight points from the two races but I’m not gutted either and there was just one part of the track that I was really struggling.

“I just couldn’t get the bike turned quickly enough to get on the power on corner exit and that meant I was losing a couple of bike lengths each time.

“It’s been a solid weekend though and good to score points in both races and get our season up and running so a big thanks to all the team; we all worked really well together so once we get the bike dialled in more, I’m confident we’ll be higher up the leaderboard.”

Scheduled to be held over 22 laps of the 1.64-mile National circuit, a third corner crash saw no less than six riders go down and the race was duly stopped and re-started over the shorter distance of 16 laps. The 21-year old Kerr made the most of the re-start and slotted into ninth at the end of the opening lap.

Two laps later he was up into eighth but the fiercely competitive racing saw him shuffled back to 12th at half race distance. There was drama on the 11th lap though when second placed Lewis Rollo crashed and took race leader Alex Olsen with him, the net result being Lerr was promoted up the order to tenth where he duly finished for six hard-earned points.

Starting Sunday’s race, held over the full 22 laps, from 12th and row four once more, Kerr completed the opening lap in 14th place and although he briefly dropped back to 15th, he was back up to 13th by half race distance.

More points were certainly on offer and although 16-time Isle of Man TT winner Ian Hutchinson overhauled him, Richard duly crossed the line in 14th place to add two more points to his early season haul.

Fraser Dykes, the AMD Motorsport team owner said: “Considering where we started out on Friday, it’s been a solid weekend and good to get two points-scoring finishes under our belt.

“Mixed weather in testing has meant it’s taking a bit longer than we would have liked to get the bike set up but we’re going in the right direction and we’ve got some good points on the board. Richard and new crew chief Simon (Bleasdale) are working really well together and we’ll be looking to improve further at Oulton Park.”

The next round of the series takes place at Oulton Park on 30 April-2 May.