The Lancashire-based SMT Racing team made a dream return to the British Superbike Championship paddock at the weekend with Tim and Tristan Reeves and Adam Jenkinson sweeping all before them in the Eastern Airways British F1 Sidecar and Pirelli National Superstock 1000cc races respectively.
Reigning World Champion Reeves came into the weekend expected to be fighting for the Sidecar race wins and, with brother Tristan back on board as passenger, that’s exactly what happened. The Kent duo were on the pace immediately on their newly-liveried LCR Suzuki outfit and duly claimed pole position although it was close with Sean Hegarty/Calum Lawson hot on their tail.
In Saturday’s 15-lap and Sunday’s 18-lap races though, the siblings weren’t to be denied and, keen to regain the British title Tim last won in 2011, they signalled their intentions for the season by clinching an emphatic double. On both occasions, they grabbed an early lead and with a consistent pace, just a couple of tenths of a second outside the lap record, they were able to come home ahead of Hegarty/Lawson by a comfortable 2.158s and 1.857s respectively.
It was a similar story for Jenkinson in the hotly-contested Superstock 1000cc Championship. Despite not having tested the Kawasaki ZX-10R, it didn’t show and he matched Reeves’ feats with pole position, his time of 47.208s giving him an advantage of 0.112s over Simon Andrews. In the 24-lap race, Adam had to give second best to John McGuinness in the early stages but when the TT legend had a major slide at half-race distance, Adam was able to close in, eventually taking the lead on the 21st lap. Despite coming under pressure until the end of the race, Adam made it the perfect weekend for the team on their comeback with another race win.
Speaking later, a jubilant team owner Robin Croft said; “I’m a bit speechless to be honest and having been away from the short circuits for over a year, to mark our comeback with two pole positions and three race wins, it really has been the perfect start! Tim and Tristan were expected to be at the front and we were pretty confident they’d be in the hunt for the race wins but you can never take things for granted. They did a thoroughly good, professional job and with two wins, it’s the ideal start to their campaign.”
“It was the same story with Adam who we, again, had every confidence in. The bike only got finished a few days before the event though so we were considerably unprepared but it didn’t show and right from the off he was on the pace. We’d have been happy with the front row so pole position was a bonus and to come through for the race win was the icing on the cake. We’re all over the moon right now and it was nice to be back in the paddock and welcomed back so much by everyone involved with MSVR – we’re all buzzing so long may it continue!.”
The team now head to Thruxton, Hampshire for the second round of the series, the meeting taking place this weekend, April 12-14.
Photo by Glynne Lewis.
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