FEATURE DAN LINFOOT
To kick things off, I called up my best mate, Mr Dan Linfoot. He had an incredible season in the British Superstock 1000 in 2023, and it's fair to say he's been in the limelight after his performances throughout the year. He's just signed for the factory Suzuki world endurance team, SERT, and it seemed like a good opportunity to chew the fat. A quick background on me and Dan. We’re both now in our mid-30s, both now fathers of two girls, and live half an hour away from each other. We've known each other since we were 11, went to school together (although Dan was in the year above), and we spent every day after school out on our BMXs, riding round the sleepy streets of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Dan's the reason I find myself in the bike world. He introduced me to minibike racing in 2004 and the rest is history, as they say.
Dan's racing career really has been something to admire. He's raced in British Championship support classes, European Superstock, Spanish CEV, South America, Australian Classic, 125GPs, 250GPs, World Supersport, British Superbikes, and now World Endurance. We met for a coffee to reminisce over the last 24 years.
Joe: Right chief, for the benefit of the reader, let's go back to where it all started. [Dan smiles awkwardly because we've been on this whole journey together, so I know exactly what he's about to say. I've tried to press record on my phone four times, but every time I press that red button, we both drop to bits and start laughing].
Yeah, well, I guess the passion all goes back to being about six-ish years old. I had a little PW80 field bike that dad used to take me out on. I'd go to the local World Superbikes with my dad on the back of his bikes, and we'd regularly go to some of the BSB rounds – Croft, Donington, Oulton… the fairly local ones to us. I loved it, but I was probably about eight before I started actually following it. The racing started when we were at a bike show over in Manchester in 2001, where I had a go on a minibike. I crashed and broke my thumb but didn't know. Anyway,
