Tarran Mackenzie became a Bennetts British Superbike Showdown surprise🌠 in th🎶e opening race of the Silverstone triple-header by sealing his maiden podium in the series having led a number of laps for McAMS Yamaha.

Mackenzie carved his way from sixth place to lead at the midway stage before holding his own in exchanging passes with both team-🌃mate Josh Brookes and Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Iriwn who were aiming to s🃏ecure Showdown spots.

Ultimately his charge came up short over the final two laps as he dropped back to third place but held off 🍌Brookes to take the final rostrum spot in his rookie BSB campaign.

Despite pushing team-mate Brookes down to fourth place both he and Irwin booked their spots in the BSB Showdown while Mackenzie looks set to take the♔ top rookie honour in 2018.

“ꦚI got stuck in and tried to stay in the podium battle, when Josh passed me o🧔n the second to last lap I thought it was the last lap so when I came across the line I thought thank goodness for that and made sure I got that podium,” Mackenzie said.

“I didn’t expect to lead at all. I d♌idn’t get the best of starts, dropped back to sixth or seventh and had to come through them all.

“Once I got to third and was behind Jake and Brookes I felt really comfortable, so I made some moves and thought if I could lead one lap I’d be happy. The laps kept coming around and nobody was pa𝔉ssing me so I just kept my head down.”