For McAMS Racing, Saturday’s Bennetts British Superbike track action at Snetterton posed its challenges, with Kent taking a tumble out of the lead in a weather-effected 5-lap race restart.

Despite an unfortunate crash in Qualifying and starting from 11th on the grid, Kent made an exceptional start from the line, picking off several riders early on, to sit in 5th after only a few corners as the originally scheduled race at 16:00 got underway.

Demonstrating competitive lap times, it wasn’t long before he entered the podium positions, fighting through into P3 before the end of lap 5.

With the race progressing, the Yamaha R1 rider aboard the soft front, hard rear tyre combination, quickly established himself as a favourable contender for a podium finish.

As the skies grew darker, the rider from Tetbury poached P2 from fellow Yamaha R1 rider, Ryan Vickers, across the line with 9 laps to go, while an incident down-field led to a red flag stoppage.

With Kent back in the McAMS Racing garage, the Norwich-based circuit became inundated with dark clouds and rain, before a 5-lap restart was confirmed.

A further delay due to worsening conditions saw the shorter stint get underway at 16:53, with Kent starting from a promising front-row spot in P2.

In torturous conditions, he made the holeshot from the line, leading into Turn 1 and seemingly thriving in the heavy downpour.

The former Grand Prix rider pulled a comfortable lead over the field during the initial stages of the sprint, teasing the team with the thought of a possible debut victory in the Premier Class.

Later on the opening lap, hearts broke in the family-run camp, with Kent losing the front at Turn 6 of Oggies, leading to an early end to his race.

McAMS Racing’s second DNF of their 2024 campaign saw them drop down to fourth in the overall Championship standings, but still only a narrow margin of 16 points from the top.

Kent’s performance in the weekend’s opening race sees himself and the R1 Superbike line up eighth on the grid for tomorrow’s opening 12-lap race.

Despite a disappointing end to the day, Kent and the team can take confidence from a strong performance before the red flag and in the opening lap of the restart.