The DAO Racing squad has returned home from a successful trip to Knockhill as riders Dean Harrison and Brayden Elliott scored top 10 finishes north of the border.
As the Bennetts British Superbike Championship made its annual trip to the Scottish circuit, the team made the short trip north from its South Cumbria base just days after returning from a successful Isle of Man TT with Harrison.
Back on the short circuit trail, Harrison quickly found the pace as practice began on Friday and on Saturday, topped the Qualifying One timesheets before eventually qualifying 13th.
Picking up a 12th in Saturday’s race, he backed it up with another in Sunday’s first race before ending the weekend with a 10th in the final battle, as his Kawasaki ZX-10RR never missed a beat.
In the Pirelli National Superstock Championship, Australia’s Elliott qualified 16th at a track he’s never been a huge fan of. After a solid opening race on Saturday he crossed the line 14th and was determined to climb higher on Sunday.
Starting 15th, he had a strong race and steadily fought his way through the pack to eventually cross the line ninth at the end of a tough 24 laps.
Dean Harrison, Superbike:
“I’ve had a really good weekend to be fair. We got stuck in straight away and went half a second quicker than ever been around here. With the weather being so warm, it was very greasy and it was easy to fall off so a bit of the time I was just trying to stay out of trouble and keep my nose clean.
“I’m making time later in the races which is what you need to do because when you’re at British championship level, the races are so long its no good being fast for five laps, you need to be fast for 30 laps.
“Right now my fitness is good, I feel good in myself to be honest and the bike’s good, the team’s good and now I want to keep this going. We’ve now had two top 10s this year already and I want to be further up the field, I want to be the best we can.”
Brayden Elliott, Superstock:
“All in all it was a bit of a challenging one but the second race was an improvement, a top 10 was better and that’s about all we could do from where we were starting from. It’s still nice to see a little bit of improvement but ultimately we want to be a bit further up the grid and be battling for podiums and top fives.
“We’ve got two weeks now to regroup. We know where we’re lacking so at least we can work in that particular area to try and improve the package and then come out and try again.”
Jonny Bagnall, Team Manager:
“We came to Knockhill on the back of a successful TT where the Kawasaki never missed a beat and it’s been the same here. The ZX-10RR seems to work well here, Brayden didn’t get great free practices which set us back a bit but he did have a good couple of races and to get ninth in the second was a good result.
“Dean’s sort of gone under the radar a bit but to come here straight from the Isle of Man and get two 12ths and a 10th is great. He’s ridden well all weekend and it’s tough around here, the times are tight but he’s had consistency all weekend and he rode really well in the last race.
“I think it’s a credit to the bike and the team. We seem to hear a lot about the Kawasaki but one of its strong points is from lap one to lap 30, the tyre’s consistent, there’s no drop off so you can push on lap 30 as much as you can on lap one.
“It’s alright going off like a scalded cat but if you can’t finish the race at the same pace it works against you so the fact that the Kawasaki does seem to like or gives benefit of having same tyre life for the race has paid off for us all. I’m happy with the results and we’ve a good place to push on from.”
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