British Superbikes, Thruxton: McConnell - “obviously your expectations go up !”

Billy McConnell had close to a dream Thruxton, culminating in a podium to reward all the hard work from both rider and  mechanics to close the British Superbike weekend.

Having previously been a Superbike rider, first in 2006 on a Yamaha, then in 2008 with Kawasaki, the Australian found himself involved with the C&L Fairburn/Look Forward team in the support classes, who decided to support McConnell and take him back to the Superbike class.

• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (2)
• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (3)

The #3 could not be more grateful for the opportunity, crediting and thanking the outfit at the first chance:

“Big thanks to the C&L Fairburn/Look Forward and the whole team…was built around me when we got put in a position later on in the year - we started off with Superstock then next thing you know we’re in Superbike two years layer - so big thanks to the team”.

In with a shout of a podium in race one, then going on to finish fifth in the frantic battle to the line, McConnell had already bettered his previous career best of sixth and learned a lot for the next races:

“The first race we thought we had a good race as well, unfortunately Kyle got us on the last corner - I was happy to settle in second and Ryan give us a bit of a nudge into the next left and then pushed me onto the painted green lines and then lost all my drive into there - but if I said I was going to get fifth in the first race I would have been happy with that!”

The Thruxton track suited both McConnell’s all out race style and the Honda, so after another fifth from eighth in race two, he was ready to leave it all on track for more improvements in the final race of the weekend:

“Obviously your expectations go up as you get a better result! From the first part of the weekend we knew we had a good bike, the Honda’s work really well…and the Honda guys for giving us some good information, so yeah - can’t fault the teams performance - all my mechanics, all my sponsors, it’s nice to put some silverware back in the pocket for them”.

The last race was not without incident as McConnell found himself in behind then-leader Tommy Bridewell, who saw his bike stop right in front with the Honda rider having no time to react and going into the back of his back wheel, quick reactions and the point of impact helped  the duo stay upright:

“Tommy went in there, and obviously people were riding a little bit more cautious to try and save tyre and then it was like his throttle just completely, or an engine or something, and just de-celed and luckily we’d just flicked on the direction where we got on the outside of the tyre - of we were on the inside it probably would have flicked us over - so we’re just lucky we were on the right side of the rear wheel there”.

That saw McConnell briefly lead, before a charging Ryan Vickers took over to complete his Sunday double, leaving the Australian to pick up his first podium on his return to BSB.