Winning start to 2017 for Lintin and Dafabet Devitt Racing

Ivan Lintin and the Dafabet Devitt Racing team made a winning start to their 2017 road racing season with the double Lightweight TT race winner producing a barnstorming ride in Sunday’s Supertwins race at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough to take victory despite starting from the back of the grid!

In what was a busy weekend for the whole team, with no less than nine races over the course of the two days, the win came in perfect conditions on Sunday afternoon when Ivan proved overtaking was no problem around the narrow 2.43-mile circuit.Having already moved up from last to fourth by the end of the first lap, that became second a lap later as he hunted down leader James Cowton. The latter then lost his chain on the fourth of eight laps to leave Ivan with an unassailable lead.

It more than made up for the disappointment in Saturday’s race, held in a lot cooler conditions, when the Bardney rider slid off at the Memorial when leading. He also opted to put in some laps on the 2017 ER6 Kawasaki in the two Open races, gaining valuable miles on the new bike as the team continue with their development in preparation for the International road races.

Using the ER6 in the Open races meant Ivan had three outings, instead of five, on the Superstock-spec Kawasaki ZX-10R with his first race, Saturday’s Senior, seeing him take a solid sixth. The sunshine on Sunday saw him improve to fifth whilst sixth was again the outcome in Sunday’s feature Bob Smith Spring Cup race. He was only four seconds adrift of the podium though whilst he also recorded his fastest ever lap around the challenging woodland circuit on a Kawasaki machine.

Ivan’s other two races came on the Kawasaki ZX-6R for the Supersport 600cc encounters with fourth being taken in Saturday’s six lap race. Fourth was also the result in Sunday’s race, again held over six laps, but it was undoubtedly the race of the weekend as just three seconds covered the leading quartet.

Ivan Lintin: “With the damp start at the beginning and cold temperatures during the day, Saturday was certainly challenging particularly with it being my first competitive outing of the year on the 1000 and first time on Dunlop tyres for ten years but I learnt a lot about both the bikes and the tyres. Apart from the little slip off on the Twin, we made a lot of positive steps over the two days and with such good weather on Sunday, it was a pleasing meeting overall. The pace on Sunday was red hot and to put in my fastest ever lap on a Kawasaki around Oliver’s Mount shows just how hard we were all trying so we can now look forward to the North West 200 in a good frame of mind.”

Roy Constable, Team Owner: “We knew this weekend wouldn’t be one of our strongest as it was Ivan’s first competitive outing with the Dunlops and there’s a lot for us all to get used to but the good thing was that he got plenty of laps in on all of the bikes so has a good direction to work in. Coming from last on the grid to winning the Supertwin race was something special whilst his lap in the Superbike race was very positive at such an early stage in the season and the team put in a good shift over the two days. It’s good to get the first meeting of the season out of the way and we expect to make some big strides between now and the North West 200 so a big thanks to Dafabet, Devitt Insurance, Dunlop and all our loyal sponsors plus Dave Stevenson for his continued hard work.”

The meeting acted as a good shakedown for the team’s next outing, and the first of the International races, with the North West 200 taking place on the 8.9-mile road circuit linking the Northern Ireland towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush on May 9-12 Pictures by Pacemaker Press International