At the Forth Road Bridge today, the remarkable sight of the leading riders in the premier motor bike championship in Europe, the MCE British Superbike Championship, happened today (Thursday 2nd July) as they rode their race bikes across the Bridge. Working with Amey, Transport Scotland and the BSB organisers, the riders posed for photographs and numerous interviews ahead of this historic crossing. All parties are driven to support the cause for rider safety on the roads and recently Knockhill hosted an event with the slogan “Race on Track, stay safe on the roads” in conjunction with Road Safety Scotland.
Event organiser Stuart Gray, the Knockhill Events Director, asked the riders ahead of the crossing if they could show the “No1” sign as they crossed, to signify to their fellow riders to “look after number one as you ride on the roads.” Championship leading riders Shakey Byrne, Stuart Easton and James Ellison, Scottish stars Taylor and Tarren Mackenzie and local Ducati Champions Dennis Hobbs from Kelty were all happy to oblige as they crossed the famous land mark. All the riders then headed to Knockhill under the more convention means of their own road cars and vans.
The MCE British Superbikes is the biggest motorcycle race championship in the UK and the meeting, with some 200 riders competing, is expected to attract a crowd of 15 000 over the weekend. The event starts on Friday 3rd July with general practice, with qualifying on Saturday for the Superbikes and some support races, with the full race scheduled for Sunday 5th July, with action from 9am each day. On Sunday, gates will open at 7am in anticipation of the expected crowd and a Blondie tribute band, Dirty Harry, has been booked for an after event “party” to help ease the exit process.