TT 2017: Johnson finds his self-belief on the Mountain

Full report below from BSN

Norton’s David Johnson overcame the added pressure of starting at number one to repeat his seventh place finish of last year in the 2017 Superbike TT and get six valuable laps on the SG6 machine.

Johnson - the first Australian to start a TT race from number one since Graeme McGregor - had only completed six laps in practice while with only a Superstock machine at his disposal for the other classes, he found himself having had less track time than a number of rivals.

However, six highly-consistent laps, the best of which was 128.911mph, saw him never outside of the top ten and he was duly rewarded with seventh place at the chequered flag.

“After only managing six laps in practice, my aim was to come away with a top ten finish so to take seventh is very pleasing,” he told bikesportnews.com. “After a few issues in practice, particularly losing a complete session when I got stranded at the bottom of Barregarrow, I wasn’t mentally prepared for the race especially starting at number one.”

“I spoke to John McGuinness before the race and he advised me to simply go out there and ride my own race which is exactly what I did. With my speeds in practice, I didn’t feel like I deserved to be starting at number one and was just waiting for the other riders to come by me but no-one did until the Mountain.

“And when they did, I was able to stick with them for a good amount of time. The more the race went on, the more I believed in myself and it carried me forward.

“On the last two laps, the grips on one of the handlebars started to come loose which was why my last lap - which is usually my strongest - was a bit slow but, aside from that, it was a smooth race and a trouble-free ride.

“With a full race distance under our belts, we’ve got some good data and we know what areas we need to work on, mainly the geometry on the front end and the set up with the rear shock.

“I normally run quite a hard setup but we’re going to go slightly softer to help the bike steer quicker. If you’d have told me last night I was going to finish seventh, I wouldn’t have believed you so it’s been a good day.”

Image source: Impact Images