The latest installment of the Knockhill and Scottish Championship season took place on Sunday 3rd June. The event saw a number of wild-card entries, in numerous classes from British Championship riders looking to steal a march on fellow competitors before the MCE British Superbike races on Sunday 24th June.
Among them, Irish star Glen Irwin signed up to race in the Superbike class onboard his British Supersport machine. The CN Racing man wasted no time putting down a marker by posting a time of 51.029 seconds to claim the P1 spot in qualifying. Bruce Birnie and National Superstock 1000 rider Joshua Day secured the other front row slots. However, it would be Birnie who would leave for home on Sunday night scratching his head after a blistering display from Irwin.
Not only did Irwin secure all three race victories, he also broke the Knockhill Club Superbike lap record on two separate occasions. His first effort, on lap seven of the opening race saw him post a time of 50.880 seconds, before going even quicker in his final outing, setting a time of 50.733 seconds to break the record he set only a few hours earlier.
A bemused Birnie commented:
“He’s a fantastic rider, l just couldn’t get near him. If l’m honest, he’s got me heading home scratching my head. I’ll need to have a think about a few things.”
A delighted Irwin said:
“It’s been a great day and a fantastic weekend with some really good racing. I never thought l’d be winning here today, but to take three wins is great. Also, to beat all the Scottish boys on their home turf is really sweet, they are all goods lads though.”
Other Superbike podium scorers over the weekend included Birnie (3 second places), Joshua Day (third), Donald MacFadyen (third) and a welcome return to form for Torquil Paterson (third).
Super-fast Paul puts everyone to the sword
Young Scottish rider Paul McClung was in dominant mood this weekend in the Scottish Supertwin class. In a powerful display, the youngster secured two race victories, the first with a winning margin of 10 seconds and the second with a 15 second gap to the next best finisher.
The Haddington ace also secured his third win of the day in the Knockhill Minitwin class during the final race of the day. Elsewhere in the Mini/Supertwin races, both Leon Murphy and Eddie Stone had to make do with 2nd and 3rd place finishes respectively in all three outings.
Formula 400 veteran, Tom Robinson insisted on making life very difficult for himself throughout the day. By his own admission, Robinson made two dreadful starts in the opening two races, forcing him way down the order. Although he managed to battle his way back through the field to take two second place class finishes, he knew all- to-well that he had let Grant Reid secure two relatively simple wins.
The crafty old campaigner though, would not be denied and went onto take the F400 win he had chased all day in the final outing of the day. Such was his determination, he powered his Yamaha FZR machine to second place on-the-road, overtaking Leon Murphy with a classy move going into the first corner in the closing stages of the race.
“I got a better start that time, it was all about damage limitation from a F400 point of view, but l did really enjoy that race,” said a much happier Robinson.
One rider who would not be leaving Knockhill happy, would have been Paul Bowerbank. After some great results last time out, Bowerbank would have headed into this weekend’s event quietly confident of securing some more race wins. Bowerbank however, would never have envisaged how events would unfold.
Firstly he wouldn’t have counted on Sean Robinson blazing his way around Knockhill, securing two race wins and posting the fastest lap of the weekend with a sub 55 second lap in the process (54.621).
Secondly, he wouldn’t have counted on Gordon Donaghy taking him out on the final corner, of the final lap, whilst sitting in second position. Donaghy who was heading for a third place finish, decided to have a go heading into the hairpin on the last lap. However, he collided with the unfortunate Bowerbank, taking both riders down, giving the podium scores to Chris Clements and Richard Bright. A remorseful Donaghy said:
“I was always going to have a go on the last lap, unfortunately it all got a bit tight and l had nowhere to go. It’s one of those things, a racing incident, but thankfully both myself and Paul were unharmed, which is the main thing.”
Other podium scorers over the weekend included: Michael Robertson (1st, 2nd), Bryan Duncanson (1st, 2nd), Daniel Kinloch (3rd) and Jodie Chalk (3rd), all Superstock 600. Jim Laing (2nd, 1st, 1st,), Alan Bryce (1st, 2nd, 2nd), Derek Butcher (3rd, 3rd,) and Callum Milne (3rd), all Clubman. Jed Heath secured 3 race wins in the Post Classic Senior class whilst, in the Post Classic Junior class, Sandy Robertson enjoyed 3 race wins with Ewan Hamilton scoring a 2nd place finish for the only race he finished.