Tommy Hill is looking to strengthen his position at the top of the British Superbike Championship standings with a consistent weekend at Snetterton. The six races completed this year have brought six different winners but three other top-two finishes leave the defending champion six points clear of Josh Brookes.
Hill expects the competitive racing to continue and is simply targeting a couple of podium finishes to improve his prospects of making the end-of-season showdown.
“I am really looking forward to Snetterton and so is the whole of the Swan Yamaha team. We are three rounds in to the championship now and everyone is starting to up their game, but so are we and we are ready for the weekend. Everyone will be out riding hard at Snetterton and you can never count anyone out. We want to be on the podium because we know we need to consistently be scoring podium credits and staying in that top six for the Showdown.”
Swan Yamaha teammate Noriyuki Haga is seven points away from the showdown positions after three rounds but his maiden BSB podium last time out at Oulton Park has given him confidence to challenge at the front regularly.
“At Oulton Park we were on the podium so of course that is my aim for every round. I tested for the first time at Snetterton before the start of the season and since then we have been to different circuits and we have made improvements. There are many fast riders in this championship; in other championships there are almost two levels whereas BSB is closer. I will be fighting again for the Swan Yamaha team because I am here to get results.”
After a productive week at the North West 200, Team Manager Shaun Muir is eager to get back to BSB action and is expecting a strong performance from both riders.
“It may seem like we have all had a break since Oulton Park but the team have also been at the North West 200 event with Ian Hutchinson, who impressively scored top ten results in different classes last weekend. Now we look ahead to the BSB round this weekend and Tommy's win at the previous event has put him at the top and that is where he wants to stay. Noriyuki has already completed laps at the circuit in pre-season testing and is ready for the weekend.”