Morecambe's John McGuinness put in a fine ride at his local Oulton Park circuit on Bank Holiday Monday to finish in 9th place in round 3 of the Metzeler National Superstock 1000cc Championship. Competing in the series for the first time since Easter, John showed strong form throughout practice and qualifying on the Padgetts Honda Fireblade and his efforts were rewarded on race day to see him pick up his first points of the season.
Tenth in opening qualifying on Saturday, a strong performance in Sunday's final qualifying session saw John take exactly a second off his time and a lap of 1m39.383s meant he lined up in 7th place and on the second row of the grid. Conditions on race day weren't expected to be good but, fortunately, the predicted rains stayed away and the 14-lap race got underway in dry weather. However, a sluggish start by John, later diagnosed as a clutch problem, meant he got pushed back in the usual opening lap melee and he found himself back in 12th place as he went onto lap 2. He was soon up to 10th though and although he was unable to overtake any other riders, he was running the same pace as the front runners and was only 3 seconds adrift of third and the final podium place. As the race went into its final third, John was right on the back of a three-way dice for 8th but when Adam Jenkinson crashed out of 6th, the race was ended prematurely and John was promoted up a spot to 9th for a strong finish as he heads into the pure road racing season.
Speaking aftewards, a satisfies John said; "Oulton's always been kind to me and I always enjoy coming here so it was good to get a run out on the Superstock bike and even more pleasing to end the weekend with a strong performance. I had a few niggling little issues in qualifying but I was happy with the final session and 7th on the grid boded well. One of the problems we'd had was with the clutch and although we thought it had been resolved, it came back on the warm up lap and when the race came under starters orders it was 'grabbing' a little and I had to be really careful so as not to get a jump start. That meant I was more cuatious than normal and that's why I got pushed back a few places like I did. I regrouped though, got stuck in and was really happy with my lap times, which were really competitive. Ninth's a little bit frustrating as I felt a top six finish could have been ours today but it was a good ninth and it puts me in a really good frame of mind for the important month ahead. The North West 200 and Isle of Man TT are very much on the horizon now so with a good result today, I can now look ahead to the roads and fully focus on the job in hand."
The International North West 200 takes place on the 8.9-mile road circuit linking the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush with first practice getting underway on Tuesday 15th May. John will be action on the Honda TT Legends Superbike and Padgetts Honda Supersport and Superstock machines.
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