BSB: Rookie Mackenzie shines at Brands

Bennetts BSB rookie Tarran Mackenzie showcased his potential in the superbike class with strong showing throughout the Brands Hatch weekend.

Quick from the off, the youngster was rarely out of the top five throughout practice and achieved a career-best fourth place in qualifying. While he’d crash out of what looked to be a certain podium on the penultimate lap of race one, he took a strong fifth in the second outing to show that despite being small he can control a 220bhp beast.

“Things just clicked for us this weekend,” he explained. “Our bike clearly suits the track which helps but I do think a lot of the step forward is in myself. I’ve had six rounds on the superbike now and I’m learning every time I ride it. It was always going to take time but I feel like we’re getting somewhere now. The big thing I’ve had to learn this year is tyre management and in race one I felt I managed the tyre well, after a bad start in the second I used up too much of my tyre and couldn’t quite match their pace at the end but I can take things away from that. 

“We were pretty much on for a podium in race one, I’m disappointed in myself as I shouldn’t have made that mistake but these things are going to happen in a learning year. I said at the start of the year I would like to get a podium but I didn’t know whether it would be possible, now I do!”