BSB: Young gun Neave to make BSB debut with Honda

Young gun Tom Neave will make his Bennetts British Superbike debut this weekend deputising for the injured Dan Linfoot in the Honda Racing squad.

The 23-year-old Lincolnshireman has impressed since making his Superstock 1000 debut at Snetterton, challenging the established class front runners at both Knockhill and Brands Hatch.

Linfoot broke his left scaphoid in a crash at Brands Hatch two weeks ago and is set to miss this weekend’s seventh round at Thruxton and the following outing at Cadwell Park.

Testing for the Honda squad twice at Cadwell in the last week, Neave impressed team boss Havier Beltran enough to secure Linfoot’s seat for the next two rounds.

This is a massive opportunity for me,” Neave told MCN at Honda’s Louth workshops.

“It’s a dream come true and Honda Racing are one of those teams you really look up to, especially as they’re based not far from where I’ve grown up in Lincolnshire.

“It’s been a funny season after missing the first three rounds, I’ve only been racing the 1000 for three rounds but we’ve got where we needed to be, especially by Brands, leading races, setting pole positions and getting podiums – although I came away quite frustrated having crashed out fighting for the lead twice, I was gutted not to finish the job off!

“I certainly wasn’t expecting Honda to give me a call to test the bike and then for that to go well enough that I’d be riding it for two rounds. I was expecting to jump on the bike and it to rip my arms off and shake its head everywhere, but it’s dead smooth and the power delivery is so linear. We weren’t able to push for lap times too much as we were on a track day but on one clear lap I managed to do my fastest ever lap around Cadwell, which I was pretty pleased with for the first day!

“The team have put no pressure on me whatsoever, so it’s just got to be a case of being consistent and finishing both races. I don’t want to be falling off it. I’ve not had a lot of laps around Thruxton and what I have done has been on a 600, I just want to focus on getting used to the bike, the team and then when we get to Cadwell, where I’ve already done a lot of laps on my stocker, we can have a better go.”