17-19TH JUNE :: KNOCKHILL

Knockhill Racing Circuit in Fife is Scotland's national Motorsport centre. The circuit is located in the countryside about 10 miles north of Dunfermline. The track, initially opened in 1974, is 1.3 miles long and was created by joining service roads to a nearby disused railway. Since the 1980s Knockhill has been extensively developed to a point where it is able to host rounds of most of the major British car and motorcycle racing championships. Today Knockhill offers a range of motorsport facilities in addition to the original circuit, including an off-road track and rally stage.

JAMES WEBB RACE REPORT:

KNOCKHILL

17/18/19 JUNE 2011

JAMES WEBB #66

FREE PRACTICE:

This track has never really been a good one for me but I was feeling good about this weekend.  We had a damp free practice 1 and ended up 2^nd behind Peter Ward and Alex was behind me in third I had a few changes in mind that I wanted to make for qualifying.  The track was looking in good shape but as always at Knockhill the weather looked iffy.

QUALIFYING:

The rain had started and was coming down hard.  I knew I had a good wet set up and just got into a nice rhythm and found my limits.  Fairly quickly I managed to go P1 again the bike was strange and I felt I could push more if I had to.  A number of riders went down on some oil someone had leaked and it was around most of the track so the session got red flagged with a few minutes to go and in the end they let us back out but with only 4 minutes left I knew no one could really better their times due to the oil and everyone’s tyres had cooled down so I didn’t go back out.  I ended up on POLE!!

RACE 1:

I got off to a good start but dropped to 3^rd.  I had a bit of a lonely race really.  I could not manage to hold the pace of the leader Dejon or Peter Ward, but then I got second wind and started to pull them in and the race got red flagged, Dejon had just ran out of petrol but kept 2^nd place because of the red flag situation.  I felt I needed to try something different with the bike but could not put my finger on what it was.

RACE 2:

I got a bit boxed in at the first turn and dropped to 5^th and just got tangled up with a load of people and was finding it really hard to get to the front.  I just tried rushing myself too soon and nearly ran up the back of Rob McNeally.  I had to pick it up and run straight on.  I had to fight hard to get back up with the leaders and got back up to 5^th.  I was not happy with that but it was a finish at least.

Thanking all the Team from Blade.