It was a game of two halves at the Bennetts British Superbike Championship event at Knockhill today – sponsored by ABK2 and supported by Event Scotland with the Scottish weather providing some interesting challenges.
In the opening wet session of the day, it was Christian Iddon who topped the times with a solid 52.180s effort on his 17th lap of the session, closely followed by Jason O’Halloran on his McAMS Yamaha just 0.149s behind in second position. Third place in the session went to the returning Leon Haslam, with MCE Ducati Racing’s Tom Sykes in fourth place – returning to Knockhill for the first time in 14 years.
As the weather improved throughout the afternoon, the winds also became stronger as the day progressed, really effecting a number of riders’ braking points into several corners. When the second and final session of the day got underway, there was an early off at the Hairpin for Championship leader Brad Ray – that left the Rich Energy OMG man sitting on the side-lines for the rest of the session having only completed 6 laps. Ray did still manage to clock a time of 48.417s in that short period to leave him in P15 for the session.
However, out-front at the head of the pack was Jason O’Halloran with a super 47.648 second effort. Indeed, the top 8 riders in the session all dropped into the 47-secon bracket, with Glenn Irwin, Tommy Bridewell, Kyle Ryde and Josh Brookes rounding out the top five.
Rory Skinner rounded out the session in 8th place, whilst Tarran Mackenzie finished P13 after trying a number of things with his bike. Worth noting that both Mackenzie and Skinner sat out the opening session of the day – both fairly-confident that no more wet running will be required at Knockhill this weekend.
Hopefully, they are spot on with their weather predictions and we can all look forward to a fast day of racing at Knockhill tomorrow and of course throughout the main raceday on Sunday 19th June.
Tickets are still available for the event, you can book online or simply book at the gate when you arrive over the weekend.