KILMACRENNAN’S Richard Kerr had his best weekend to date riding in the Supersport class at the British Superbike Championship (BSB) at the weekend.
Kerr, onboard the Campbell Motorsport triumph, went into rpund 5 of the series full of confidence after scoring top tens placings every race so far in 2019 in only his second year in the class after stepping up from the motostar class at the beginning of last year.
Richard took free practice one steady and qualified 10th of the supersports and followed that up with another improvement in free practice two, posting the 7th quickest time.
Qualifying took place in dry cloudy conditions and the young Kilmacrennan man ended the 30 minute session in a fantastic 6th place and less than a second of the pole setter and Championship leader, Dubliner, Jack Kennedy.
Race one and Kerr made his customery good start and was running inside the top 8.
Kerr was involved in a fantastic battle for 5th position with local rider Rory Skinner, who is the current British Talent Cup champion, and the vastly experienced Ben wilson, a 12-times winner in the class.
Richard settled for 6th and more valuable points in the bag.
Race two was a longer affair and would be a 26 lapper around the physically demanding short and twisty Scottish circuit.
Richard lined up on row two beside North West 200 record holder Alastair Seeley after setting the 6th quickest lap in race one.
Kerr again made a great start and was involved another battle with Wilson, Jamie Perrin and mason law both on Moto two machines.
Richard had a difficult first few laps and found himself in 10 th position after the opening laps but soon settled into his rhythm and the lap times where coming down.
Richard was looking at a career best finish of 4th in the class after local favorite Skinner’s bike unfortunately broke down and promoted Seeley to third followed by law, Perrie, Wilson and a fast catching Kerr.
Richard got past Wilson and had the gap closed to Perrie and Law.
Perrie crashed out with 5 laps remaining and Kerr clipped his machine as he was hot on his heels and was lucky not to come down himself but he did bend the footpeg on the bike, so rode the last four laps with some difficulty as the peg was bent right back.
His lap times dropped by almost a second.
Law pulled clear and Wilson got past but Richard somehow managed to make it to the chequeerd flag less than a second ahead of Wilson’s team mate on the gearlink Kawasaki Ross twyman and finished a career best 5th in the Supersport class.
A fantastic weekend again for the consistent Kerr and the result now leaves Richard in 6th place just four points off fourth place.
The top three have broken clear but it is very much game on for that fourth spot in the championship and the young Kilmacrennan man has it firmly in his sights.
Richard would like to thank all his sponsors as always and is looking forward to the 6th round in Snetterton in three weeks’ time.
