Bruce Birnie managed to secure his second successive Knockhill Motor Sports Club Superbike Championship title, in albeit, unconventional circumstances. Birnie, despite suffering from a wrist injury, lined up on the grid for today’s final race knowing that he would be required to put in an almighty effort to stop Andrew Tasker stealing his Superbike crown.
Tasker, a man in form after an opening race win and a fastest lap performance on the Reverse Circuit, would have headed onto the track knowing that, with one more strong performance he could land the biggest title of his fledgling career. But from the moment the lights faded, no one could have envisaged what would follow.
As all the riders headed into the opening corner at walking pace, well 10mph, probably the slowest these guys have travelled all season long. It took a matter of moments to bring Tasker, Birnie and Paterson crashing to the deck. Literally no-one could believe what they were witnessing as bikes and riders lay strewn across the track. The drama was further enhanced when the race was red flagged and the riders dashed about frantically, in Birnie’s case, sprinting from the hairpin to the pits to see if they’d be allowed to restart.
The message was that they could and the trio then began dashing from medical centre to garages in an attempt to make the race. Ultimately, none of the riders made the race restart and would spend the next 15 minutes wondering what had just happened. But as the old saying goes, someone’s misery inevitably becomes someone else’s joy, and it was Donald MacFadyen who would hold his nerve to secure a famous reverse Superbike win ahead of Roy Houston and Norman Brunton.
As for the two title protagonists, you have to feel for Andrew Tasker. He had Birnie on the ropes, make no mistake Birnie was rocking and it looked for one moment that he would resort to commandeering someone else’s bike to make the restart. Indeed, Birnie would probably have lined up on the grid with a push bike, such is his will to win. As for Tasker, his time will come, potentially a Scottish Championship victory come the end of this season, but for sheer bloody mindedness and determination, Birnie just about deserves this Championship win.
A pragmatic Tasker commented:
“It’s really disappointing, it’s been a great season, qualified for the British, not crashed all year, raced so close with these guys throughout the season and then, to crash at 10 miles an hour…
“I suppose the most important thing is; we are all ok.”
That concludes the Knockhill Club Championship series for this season, although the Scottish equivalent still has a few races remaining. For us, we wish to thank everyone involved in the Knockhill Club this year. We say it time and time again, but without the selfless devotion of time and effort on so many people’s behalf, we wouldn’t be here reviewing another great motor sport event at Knockhill.
You can view a whole host of images from our first Reverse Circuit meeting by following this link.