Despite some wet weather during the middle of the day, the second MCE British Superbike Championship practice session started with a dry track. It didn’t take top-man from the opening session, Luke Mossey, long to head back to the top of the time sheets with a 48.788 second effort.
However, with the fear of rain on the horizon most of the riders went for a lap time in the early stages with a number of riders dropping into the 48 second bracket; Byrne, Laverty, Haslam, Linfoot, Iddon and Bridewell all posted competitive laps in the opening stages; however, with barely 10 minutes gone in the session, JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Peter Hickman surpassed all others with a stonking 48.368 second lap.
15-minutes into the session, the man with 8 victories from the last 10 races at Knockhill, Shane Byrne, closed to within 0.129sec of Hickman’s time on a 48.497 second lap. There were various changes up and down the order with Hopkins the most notable addition to the top ten in P5. Indeed, the top 20 riders were covered by a mere second and with 25 minutes left on the clock, Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty took another chuck out of Hickman’s time – posting a 48.466 second lap around the tight and twisty Knockhill Circuit.
Local hero, Stuart Easton was somewhat off the pace with 25 minutes remaining and still seems to be trying to find the ideal set-up aboard the ePayMe Yamaha. Mossey made further improvements to jump ahead of Byrne on the standings whilst Jenny Tinmouth came a cropper at Butcher’s losing control of her Honda Racing Fireblade. Mossey though, seems at one with the Knockhill track and his Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki and blasted his way back to the top of the times with a 48.280 second lap.
There were additional improvements for Haslam, Byrne and Laverty bumping Mossey down to 3rd place. However, with only 3 minutes remaining on the clock Michael Laverty powered his Tyco BMW to the top of the timesheets with the fastest Superbike time of recent times with a 48.009 second effort – surpassing Shane Byrne’s current Lap and Qualification lap record times; to round out the session on top.
So, that concludes the MCE British Superbike action for today. Up tomorrow is free practice 3 and the Datatag Extreme Qualifying session for the Superbike teams, with Shane Byrne’s 47 second lap-time prediction well in sight. Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
Tickets for the event, taking place on 24/25/26 June, can be booked online via the Knockhill website – with pre-booking discounts available on all advanced ticket purchases. Alternatively, tickets will also be on the gate (subject to on the day pricing) during each day of the event. Gates will be open early-doors and it’s advised that you plan ahead for your journey to avoid any major delays.
Further info and ticket details can be found on our BSB event webpage (see below).
