DAN LINFOOT ROLLS BACK THE YEARS
The British Superbike Championship rider and his dad remember the good old days.
Listening to Dan Linfoot chat with his dad, Craig, is like listening to two old friends. At ease in each other’s company, they trade jokes and reminisce about a relationship that spans 30 years: three decades in which Linfoot has grown from a young boy, riding on the back of his dad’s Honda Fireblade to race meetings across the country, to acclaimed British Superbike rider with a top five placing three years on the trot.
Linfoot is now a well-known name in the current British Superbike Championship (BSB). Having joined the Honda Racing team in 2015, he has quickly moved up the rankings, gaining a series of podium places which culminated in his first BSB win at Silverstone in the 2017 season. That was quickly followed by another win at Oulton Park in the next round.
This year he had a strong start in the BSB after a third and fourth place at Donington, but injuries to his neck and wrist in separate crashes have hampered his progress. However, the Yorkshire-born rider remains positive, his likeable nature coming across as he talks about his love of motorbikes and the influence his father had on his career.
“Without my dad I wouldn’t have got into bikes,” Linfoot says. “When he was on his bike I wanted to go with him, wherever he went. I remember that right from a young age, all I wanted to be was a bike racer.”
"from a young age, all I wanted to be was a bike racer.”
When he was 10 years old, Linfoot would hop onto the back of his dad’s Honda Fireblade at the family home in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, and they would ride up and down the country to watch BSB or World Superbike races as far away as Brands Hatch in Kent.
“We would ride for four or five hours, watch the race, then ride four or five hours back,” he recalls. “I was a 10-year-old kid sat on the back of a bike and I absolutely loved it. I could have sat on it all day.”
Craig looks at his son and says: “Not so much for me. I used to get terrible arse ache.”
One-track mind
The father and son are obviously close, a bond forged through years of riding together and a shared love of motorbikes. Once Linfoot began going with his dad to watch British Superbike riders, other interests seemed dull in comparison.
“I have a vivid memory from when I was young,” he recalls. “One particular day I was being egged on by some school friends to go to a fair, but Dad was going to Donington to watch the World Superbikes. He said, ‘Do you want to go to Donington or do you want to go with your friends?’ I felt a bit of pressure from my friends to go to this fair, so I went with them. But when he rode off I was crying my eyes out because I really wanted to go with him. That night when he got back, I said to myself, ‘I’m never going to do that again. I’m always going to go with my dad to watch the bikes.’”
It was actually Craig who started Linfoot on his long road to the British Superbike Championship, introducing him to riding mini-bikes when he was 11 years old.
“We went to a bike meet at Rawtenstall in Lancashire,” Craig remembers. “There were a few mini-motos for hire, so Dan had a go on one and that was it. He was smitten.”
But this first taste of riding his own bike wasn’t as successful as the rest of his career. As the young Linfoot went around the small track, he took a corner a little too fast and fell off, landing awkwardly on his hand.
“It turned out that he had a broken thumb,” laughs Craig. “We only found out on the way home when he couldn’t hold the grab rail on my bike.”
Dan Linfoot and his Dad ride iconic Honda bikes.
Dan Linfoot and his Dad ride iconic Honda bikes.
Forward momentum
That first ride on a mini-bike may have broken a bone, but it also fuelled a desire for competitive riding that began a long career of winning races and moving up the ranks. First it was the 2001 and 2002 National Minibike Championships, then the 125cc category in 2004. In 2005, Linfoot finished fourth overall in the championship.
Next was the British 125cc and 250cc Championship, alongside the European 250cc Championship. In 2007 he rode at seven rounds of the World 250cc GP, while a ride in the 2008 European Superstock 600 Championship saw him finish the season fifth overall.
“I never tried to win a championship,” Linfoot says. “I always improved on one bike then moved onto the next category. I always wanted to get to the highest level of bike that I could to try and make a career of it. I didn’t want to stay in the 125 class for three years. I wanted to learn from it and move on.”
In 2009, Linfoot was offered the chance to race in the British Superbike Championship, and he has continued riding in the prestigious BSB ever since, joining Honda in 2015 for a triumphant season with four podium finishes. And his father has been with him every step of the way.
“Throughout his career I’ve been there with him,” Craig says, looking over at his son. “From the mini-bikes to the 125s, I was doing all the spannering, everything I could to get him to meetings and out there racing.”
Rolling back the years
Since both Craig and his son are at the headquarters of Honda Racing in Louth, Lincolnshire, they have decided to take advantage of the world-class test track and try out a few bikes. But while Linfoot will ride one of the latest BSB-grade models from the Honda Fireblade series, his dad will relive his youth on a Honda CB1100R and CB1000.
“I’m in the middle of recovering from a fractured scaphoid in my wrist,” says Linfoot. “So it’s a great opportunity for me to get back on a bike and ride again, and a great opportunity for my dad to try some of the vintage Hondas.”
And with that, father and son head off towards the track, laughing and chatting about bikes and racing. Some things never change.
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