Tom Neave leads the Honda charge at Knockhill
KnockhillThe second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship got underway today at Knockhill running a two-day event programme.
The second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship got underway today at Knockhill running a two-day event programme, which saw a busy day for the Honda Racing UK team with Superbike and Pirelli National Superstock practice sessions and qualifying, as well as the first BSB race of the weekend.
For the team it was Superstock rider Tom Neave who took the top-Honda honours in today's sessions aboard the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP. Never outside the top-10 in both practice sessions, Tom qualified sixth putting him on the second row of the grid for tomorrow's first 25-lap Superstock race.
On the Superbike side of the garage it's been a frustrating day for Glenn Irwin who came home 12th in today's opening Superbike race. Having had issues throughout practice and qualifying, the 20-lap race further highlighted these issues, which made it impossible for Glenn to make progress.
Glenn's teammates Ryo Mizuno and Takumi Takahashi continued with their development in the British series learning all they can and putting in essential laps for tomorrow's two Superbike races. Both riders improved their times throughout the sessions and during the race Ryo finished 20th, with Takumi 22nd.
The team will be back in action tomorrow with four races across the day, two Superstock (25 laps) and two Superbike (30 laps).
Today is up there as one of the most frustrating days possible, but this can happen in racing we have to try all options and settings in order to progress and today it just didn't work out for us. We had such a positive test here and to walk away from today's race 12th isn't where we want to be. Today has highlighted an area of the bike where we have struggled a lot this year, so we need to come together as a team and rectify this to come back stronger for the next two races. We need to have two solid races tomorrow in order to claw back points and get us nearer the front of the championship.
It was a hard day, but first of all I am relieved to have finished without crashing! I was worried about the start of the race because of the crash at Oulton Park, but I was able to put this out of my mind and focus on the race. I am still not satisfied with the result but we have collected data from every run so we will try to make tomorrow's two races more productive.
Today was my first time riding at Knockhill, but it was not so difficult to understand because the circuit is very short. The lap times improved until qualifying, but for the race it wasn't so easy. We have two races tomorrow, so now to focus and concentrate on those.
I'm coming away happy with today's sessions and my position on the grid for tomorrow. During qualifying I used my head for once and we played a safe game when it looked like it was going to rain. We could have gone back out and made up some positions, but a few metres closer to the front won't change the result for tomorrow. I'm feeling happy as I know I can be consistent in the races and there's plenty more left in the tank for tomorrow!