Tarran Mackenzie scored his first points of the season at Portimao

Yesterday at 04:27 AM

For the first time since the Dutch World Superbike Round in 2024, Tarran Mackenzie was back inside the points.

Tarran Mackenzie had a mixed weekend at the Portuguese World Superbike Round. On Saturday, he scored his first points of the season, but on Sunday, he crashed in both races.

The British rider ended the opening race of the weekend in 14th place and just narrowly missed out on 13th place in a late battle with Bahattin Sofuoglu.

"It would have been nice to pass Sofuoglu at the end, but two points is good anyway, in what was probably my best dry race for a long time," Mackenzie said after Race One.

"We're still struggling in some areas, but if we can make slight improvement there, it could make a big difference, I think. We tried something with the electronics this morning that helped in the race, but I think we can take another step and be a bit more competitive tomorrow.

"It was hard to make passes as we were losing a little on corner exit, so if we can gain a little bit there, it would make the job easier."

However, Sunday was a complete disaster for the British rider. Mackenzie crashed out of the Superpole Race and crashed in Race Two but managed to remount and finish in 17th place.

"We made a bit of a change to the bike after warm-up, going in a slightly different direction geometry-wise," he said.

"That proved positive, and the lap times were more consistent in the Superpole race. It's quite a big change, though, and unfortunately, I caught myself out with it and crashed.

"We went in the same direction for race 2, and I felt quite good once the race restarted, but I'm still trying to understand how to ride it, as I need to approach it a bit differently.

"I think it can be positive moving forward, so this was kind of a test today. It was a bit frustrating to crash, but that was part of the learning process this weekend.

"I'd have liked to have scored points again today but, like I say, I think what we tried today can be positive going forward."

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