JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider Luke Mossey underlined his front-runner status in British Superbike FP3 today at Knockhill – the solo representative of the Kawasaki team following Leon Haslam’s unfortunate injury yesterday during the opening practice session of the weekend.
Mossey led the session early on before being overtaken by Be Wiser Ducati rider Shane Byrne – also the only representative for that team following Glenn Irwin’s off through the Arnold Clark Chicane yesterday. However, Irwin was at the track today kicking his heels in the pit lane garage insisting he’ll be fit to race at Snetterton next time out – despite having a dislocated shoulder and elbow put back into place last night at the local hospital.
John Hopkins had a steady session, getting his Moto Rapido Ducati up to 6th place before crashing out at Turn 3 with 10 mins left of the session. Lee Jackson joined Hopper at Turn 3 with his Smiths Racing BMW at the 7 minute mark – which brought out a Red Flag for some quick debris clear up. The session resumed with Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot eager to get back out on track, whilst Mossey would remain in the garage for the remainder of the session with a possible engine blow up.
“There was a rattle all the way around that last lap, I think we may have blown the engine,” said Mossey.
So with 5 mins remaining on the clock, the remaining riders headed back out on track led by Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot, however, there were only further improvements for Gunitoli (P13) and Ellsion who moved up to P3 in the dying embers of the session.
The next MCE British Superbike action takes place at 2.04pm today, which will see the BSB riders tackle the DataTag Extreme Qualifying session – which will see 3 individual elimination style sessions take place until we have the pole position rider for tomorrow’s opening race.
Expect to see the fastest ever lap around Knockhill in that session with Mossey already well inside the lap record of Shane Byrne after posting a 48.159second effort in Free Practice 3 today. Additionally, we might even see the first 47sec lap of Knockhill by a British Superbike rider – although time will tell.
Hopefully the weather gods will hold out for a few more hours yet and we’ll get to witness a thrilling Q1, Q2 and Q3. Tickets are still available at the gate. Indeed, you can also pre-book your tickets for tomorrow’s raceday via the Knockhill website until midnight tonight (subject to ticket collection at the track). Tickets will also be available at the gate throughout tomorrow’s main raceday.
Look forward to seeing you here.
