By Phil Wain
September 26 2005

John McGuinness was back in the points this weekend at Oulton Park, in round eleven of the British Superbike Championship. Riding the Vitrans Honda for only the second time this season, John finished in 15th and 16th in the two races to claim one championship point. Indeed, with all the mechanical problems he’d endured earlier in the season, it was the first time he’d completed a British Superbike race since round three at Mallory Park, back in April. Although not as high as they would have liked, both John and the team were pleased with their progress, and will look for more at the final two rounds.

After heavy rain showers blighted Friday’s free practice sessions, Saturday dawned dry and bright, and John ended the first qualifying session in an encouraging 12th place. Conditions were better still for final qualifying and the lap times fell for the whole grid including John’s, and he posted a best time of 1m 37.768 seconds. He was only 1.4 seconds adrift of the pole position time of Gregorio Lavilla but he had slipped back to 14th place overall, good enough for a fourth row start.

With good conditions greeting the riders on Sunday, John had a solid ride in the first race, although he missed out on a point when he finished in 16th, just half a second behind Tristan Palmer who claimed the final championship point. Another decent start in the second race saw him running on the edge of the points and he eventually came home in 15th, just behind Richard Wren and Steve Brogan, to add one point more to his championship tally.

At the conclusion of two hard-fought races, John commented: “Naturally, I’m a bit disappointed with the results as I would have liked to have been a lot higher, but I’ve been away from racing for a long time and today’s the first time I’ve finished a short circuit race since April, so it’s fair to say I’m a bit race rusty. Qualifying went reasonably well and I was pretty much on the pace, but I got stuck in no mans land in both of the races and couldn’t climb any higher.”

“We chose a soft tyre for the first race and it was pretty much gone after eight laps. It was a battle to finish, and I was quite tired at the end of the first race but we’ve made quite a bit of progress with the bike this weekend and I felt a lot better in the second race. I must admit I was hoping for rain today, as it would have given me a better chance, but I tried hard in both races, right until the very end, and I think we should be a bit higher up at Donington. The team was happy and I’m looking forward to Scarborough now, where it would be nice to pay them back. It’s always a good meeting and hopefully Robbie and all the team will enjoy themselves.”

There’s now a two-week break before the penultimate round of the British Superbike Championship at Donington Park, but John will be back in action on the roads next weekend when the International Gold Cup races take place at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough on Saturday/Sunday 17th/18th September.