It was incredibly close in the first Bennetts British Superbike practice session at Knockhill today when the Be Wiser Ducati rider of Josh Brookes topped the opening session of the weekend, closely followed by FS-3 Racing’s Danny Buchan. Indeed, it was so tight that the top 19 riders are covered by less than a second.
Scottish hope, Tarran Mackenzie rounded out the session in 3rd place ahead of Santander Salt Tag Yamaha’s Dan Linfoot, who in turn finished ahead of Scott Redding on his Be Wiser Ducati with a time of 48.163 seconds, frightening when you consider that the former MotoGP rider had only completed 30-odd laps around the track ahead of this weekend.
Rounding out the top 10 was Iddon, Mossey, Ray, Hickman and Glenn Irwin, who is targeting a return to the top five this weekend following a touch start to the year on his Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki.
Brookes’ time, a 48.001 second effort is still some way shy of the lap time Leon Haslam racked up last year when he went sub 48 seconds in qualifying with a 47.462 second lap – however with another two free practice sessions to come ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session, expect that time to come under threat come tomorrow afternoon. It’s all shaping up to be an incredibly close weekend of racing at Knockhill Racing Circuit.
“There were a number of opportunities for a faster lap, but a few things happened and I couldn’t quite get done,” commented Brookes.
The next Bennetts BSB action takes place today at 15:45pm when the riders will have their second taste of the Knockhill track. Tickets for the today’s action are available at the gate if you fancy coming along. Tickets for the weekend will be available online, subject to box office collection all the way up to midnight the night before each weekend day.
Hope you’ll join us.
