BSB: Young Mackenzie continues to shine

Tarran Mackenzie continued to impress as he was fighting at the front once again in this weekend’s Assen round of the Bennetts British Superbike championship. 

The pint-sized son of former champ Niall led 16 laps of Sunday’s opening race before only just losing out to title fighters Leon Haslam and Jake Dixon in the closing stages and would no doubt have been up there in race two had he not crashed out in the early drama.

Mackenzie’s first race rostrum is his third of the year as he becomes a regular BSB front runner, placing him in an ideal place to launch a title attack in just his second year in the series.

While nothing has been announced yet, the 22-year-old looks set to remain with the McAMS Yamaha team for 2019 which could put the youngster in a strong position to fight for the title with so many others on the move.

“I really didn’t know what to expect from my rookie year,” Mackenzie said. “I kind of set what Brad achieved last year as a target as he did a good job. He got one podium, I’ve now had three and I’ve been fighting for wins. I was 0.075 seconds off at Silverstone and today I led 16 laps of a race.

“I ran at the front at Brands, Thruxton, Silverstone, made a massive step forward at Oulton compared to earlier in the year and was back at the front again this weekend. It’s a shame the Showdown works how it does as I could set my sights on a strong championship position, but my priority now is to box off a deal with the McAMS Yamaha team for next year so we can go into winter on a high.