Young hope Adam McLean spurred on by impressive season

McLean finished fourth in the Supersport class at the North West 200 and impressed on his debut at the Isle of Man TT, where the 21-year-old lapped at 120.644mph on the MSS Kawasaki despite limited practice time due to poor weather on the island.

He finished 18th on the ZX-6R behind Horst Saiger to earn a silver replica and McLean says he accomplished the personal targets he had set himself prior to the event.

“I was over the moon to do that speed but the problem was that I needed the laps to be able to try and improve on that. Getting to 120mph wasn’t too bad, but trying to push on past that was the problem with the lack of track time,” he said.

“That was the goal I set myself for the fortnight and people were asking me what speed I wanted to do, but I never told anyone because if I’d said 120mph they have looked at me twice.”

The quiet Ulsterman made it onto the podium in the Supertwin race at the Ulster Grand Prix as he finished third behind class specialist Ivan Lintin and Dan Cooper, but McLean hails his fourth place result in the second Supersport race at the North West as his standout achievement.

“Looking back I’m definitely very pleased because overall it was a solid season,” said McLean, who was riding a 600 Supersport machine for the first time this year.

“Everything was consistent and the results were decent, so now I just want to concentrate on next year and try and build on those results.

“Getting fourth at the North West in the Supersport race was definitely the highlight because you’re up against so many fast riders on fast bikes.”

McLean was provided with a Kawasaki ZX-10 Superstock machine for the second part of the season but rather than jump in at the deep end, he opted to get to grips with the ‘thousand’ on the short circuits with a view to making his debut in the class next year.

“I did an ISB race at Kirkistown and then Bishopscourt, so we went to the Sunflower only having rode the bike twice,” he said.

“Looking from the outside in, it probably didn’t look like a good meeting for me as I slid off the bike twice. But I was actually happy because we learnt a lot about the bike, the times were good and my pace was good, so I took a lot of positives away from the event.

“If I had went out on the big bike at the road races this year, it would’ve been taking me for a sail and not the other way around, so I just wanted to get some time on the bike at the short circuits and then go to the roads with it when I feel I can be competitive.

“The plan’s the same for next year and I’m aiming to do some of the national road races and then the internationals again – the North West, TT and Ulster Grand Prix and some Scarborough races as well.”

McLean wished to thank everyone who supported him this year, particularly MSS Performance, Roy Hanna Motors, A&B Installations, MJ Palmer and all his individual team helpers.

If anyone is interested in becoming involved with McLean’s racing programme for 2018, he can be contacted via his Facebook page ‘Adam McLean Racing’ or email Adam at [email protected].