Dan Kneen made a very satisfactory start to his season with Tyco BMW when recording three top-10 finishes at Donington Park over Easter.

Riding in the National Superstock 1000 class of the BSB meeting alongside team-mate Keith Farmer, he narrowly missed out on a podium position in the second race in cool conditions on Sunday.

Although he rode British Junior Superstock in his younger days, Kneen has only done a handful of BSB meetings over the past four years so was keen to make the most of the opportunity with the TAS Racing team.

’Practice went well and I was feeling good, even in tricky conditions, running in the top 10,’ he said. ’In qualifying I was feeling comfortable and sat in sixth position, I was pushing on and up on sector times when I lost the front at the final turn so dropped to 11th.’

On Sunday the opening two races were run virtually back-to-back at 13 laps apiece. He made a good start in race one and was in seventh spot when he overshot Foggy’s esses, slipping back to 10th, but got back up to seventh by the close.

’After struggling in race one we made some small changes to cure the front-end chatter. I made an even better start from row three in race two and was in third early on, dropping to fourth and staying there for the rest of the race until it was red-flagged three laps from the end, so I never got the chance to try for the podium,’ he continued.

The weather was poor on Monday with a wet track to deal with. Kneen made another good start, but soon dropped to eighth not feeling so comfortable. ’I tried to settle in as the race went on, but couldn’t get the bike to turn too well so had to settle for 10th.

’Overall I’m made up with how the weekend went, it was really good. My best laps were only 0.3 of a second off the best in the race so I had good pace. It was great to be running up front in such a competitive class.

’It’s nice to show that I can go well on the circuits as well as the roads so hopefully I’ll get opportunities to do a few more rounds.’

Team manager Philip Neill commented: ’Despite the inclement weather conditions, today was a positive start to our Superstock campaign, with Dan arriving on the British championship scene in fine style with a sterling performance on the BMW S1000 RR.

l Conor Cummins finished 25th in the first round of the British Superbike Championship on the Padgett’s Honda. Of the regular TT men, Peter Hickman finished eighth, Josh Brookes 12th, Dean Harrison 21st, David Johnson 22nd, Martin Jessopp 23rd and William Dunlop 27th. In race two, Brookes was 11th, Johnson 18th and Cummins 20th.

l Isle of Man-based Quinnstheprinters.com BMW by Team IMR opened its Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship season in good style with riders Chrissy Rouse (of Newcastle) and Jordan Gilbert (of Buckinghamshire) leaving the Leicestershire venue in seventh and 11th positions overall after the initial three races.