Howie Mainwaring-Smart had a fairly positive weekend at the latest round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park last weekend.
Whilst he crashed out of the first race of the weekend, he finished 11th in race two and in the process put his first points of the season on the board.
Racing on board the Smiths Racing BMW once again, he and team mate Jackub Smrz found themselves in 19th and 23rd on the grid respectively for the opening 18-lap race in challenging conditions.
Held in wet weather, it was Aylesford’s Mainwaring-Smart who started the better of the two and in the early stages he was comfortably running inside the top ten. Looking good for some solid championship points, the 29-year-old overdid it and crashed out leaving him to rue the missed opportunity. 
The second race later in the day still saw a damp track but the rain had stopped and the circuit was rapidly drying, making tyre choice critical. Mainwaring-Smart opted for intermediates, front and rear, and in the first half of the race, it was the perfect choice as he ran in fifth place. However, as the race wore on, the track dried rapidly and grip started to diminish meaning Howie slipped back to 11th but it still enabled him to get his first points of the season on the board.
Speaking after the weekends racing, Mainwaring-Smart: he said: “All in all, it’s been a very positive weekend and we’ve taken massive steps with the bike that have taken us in the right direction. I was strong all weekend in the wet but made a bit of a rookie mistake in qualifying, staying in the pits thinking I was safe, when I should have gone out.
“It put me further back on the grid from where I should have been and I was perhaps a bit over eager in the first race, trying to capitalise on my good pace. Race two was looking good before the track dried up quickly but I’ve got my first points of the season and we’ve made great strides so there’s plenty to be positive about.”
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