Fleetwood racer Richie Harrison at full throttle in first Pirelli Super Series 1000

Now riding a Kawasaki ZX10R, Harrison made a promising start in the first two rounds at Donington Park and Oulton Park (as we previously reported).

At the latter race weekend in Cheshire, Harrison had two top-10 finishes to climb to 10th overall in the championship going into the next two events at Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire, and at the Croft circuit in Yorkshire.

Richie qualified 14th in the dry at Cadwell Park, though conditions were wet for race onee and he finished eighth.

On the Sunday, Richie was fifth on the grid but made the wrong tyre choice for both races.

On a drying track for the first race, he opted for full slicks in the hope the track would be completely dry for the second half of the race. That didn’t happen and Richie slipped to 17th in class.

A deluge saw him choose full wets for race two, though the track was soon bone dry after the rain stopped and the tyres began to overheat.

Even so, Richie finished ninth in class to leave Cadwell eighth overall in the championship.

He said: “I was pleased all round with Cadwell as we showed good promise in the wet and it was only the tyre choices that let us down, but lessons learned really.”

A good testing day at Croft saw Richie record his fastest-ever lap of the circuit.

The pace was as hot as the weather for race one as Richie qualified 16th but struggled to rediscover his rhythm from the test day and finished 14th.

The Sunday was again hot and dry, and a strong start saw Richie well placed in 10th.

However, a small mistake in a complex section saw him run wide and touch the grass, dropping several places.

Richie regained his composure and recorded a series of personal best laps, including a last-lap of 1min, 25.6secs, to finish in 13th place.

The final race of the day saw Richie in 10th place until the red flags came out to stop the event. Richie fared less well after the restart, dropping from 12th to 23rd before battling back over the final six laps to finish 14th and ninth overall for the championship.

He remained positive afterwards, saying: “We again accrued more points in each race and had a good strong weekend, improving my own PB.

“The last time I raced a big bike at Croft was 2004 in the British Superbikes Superstock Cup on a 1999 Yamaha R1. I thoroughly enjoyed being back at Croft, though its bumps and high-speed bends were constant factors all weekend.

“The team have a few issues we are working on as we look forward to the next round in Anglesey next month. As usual, huge thanks to all our sponsors and associates for helping us to get to the grid and continue or progression in one of the most hotly-contested Superbike classes.”

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