Press Release:
Manxman Dan Kneen, riding for Marks Bloom Racing , once again proved his ability as one of the worlds leading road racers with solid results at yesterdays Isle of Man TT races.
With a superb 6th place finish in Mondays Supersport 1 TT race and 7th in the 360 London Superstock Race , Dan finally ended the run of bad luck which has plagued the 23 year old so far this season.
On the Slick Performance tuned 2009 Yamaha R6 supersport machine, he was lying in 8th place at the end of Lap one. just 3 seconds behind John McGuiness who was first away on the road..
With the restarted race being run over 3 laps the team decided to pit at the end of the first lap and due to the fact a few riders didnt pit till the end of lap 2, positions took a while to sort themselves out.
“After the pitstop I seemed to be on my own for most of the race , also I was getting really confused with my signal boards as I thought I was a lot higher up than they were telling me!” said Dan
“It was my first proper dry race of the season as well , having only had a wet NW200 and even wetter BSB race at Thruxton it took me a while to get myself back into it to be honest. “
With a 125.1 mph lap on lap 3 he said “I felt like I was pushing hard but I went quicker last year so im really looking forward to Wednesdays Supersport race 2, the Slick Performance tuned R6 was as reliable as ever and managed 168mph in the speed trap.”
Crossing the line in 6th place , from start number 6 on the same Privateer Yamaha he rode to 5th place in last years race was once again a great result for the youngster.
After brief rest and practice excursion on the ManxTT electric bike which still has a few gremlins to iron out, it was onto the 2011 Kawasaki ZX10r Superstock machine for the delayed superstock race which took place in the evening at 6.30pm.
Starting number 15 , Dan set off and was soon into the groove but just narrowly avoided overshooting at Ballacraine on the opening lap.
“I knew I was going in a bit too hot and just got it stopped and turned slowly so i didn’t overshoot, It cost me loads of time and was a stupid mistake”
Lying in 8th place at the end of lap one and 6th at the end of lap 2 the Braddan rider pitted but briefly stalled when leaving, thereby losing valuable time again.
Setting a lap time of 127.26 mph on lap 2 Dan was having fun out on the road .
” I caught up Michael Rutter and William Dunlop and had a good run with them till we got to Parliament Square in ramsey, I managed to pass the two of them but then completely overshot in Parliament square. I got past Rutter again but then had to follow William , I was quicker in places but couldnt get past and boy that Honda of his is fast !”
Lap 4 and the end of the race saw Dan finish in 7th Place, from start number 15 nearly 37 seconds ahead of Michael Rutter and just 11 seconds behind Cameron Donald who had started number 6.
With handling problems on his BSB EVO spec Superbike the decision has been made to run the Superstock machine in Fridays senior race.
“To be honest the EVO bike scared me a few times during practice, I thought i wasnt going to make it past the bottom of bray hill once or twice !”
“We took this engine out of a brand new ZX10r roadbike at the weekend and ran it in on the dyno at Slick Performance , The bike has a completely standard engine, its never been touched and its fast ! with the superstocker setup already we shall just fit the superbike swinging arm with the quick release wheel fittings and run that in the Senior” said Dan.
” I shall take it out for one practice lap to make sure it all feels good and I shall just give it my best shot in the race”
Dan would like to thank his sponsors especially Marks Bloom Accountants, Wemoto.com, ELAS, Slick performance tuning, Maxton, Kawasaki UK, The Steam Packet Co., West end couriers,all his trade sponsors and Mechanics Wayne, Rory.Jon.
Bob Hannah Donnie Hansen Torlief Hansen Marcus Hansson Doug Henry
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