Tommy Hill and his Be Wiser Kawasaki team had an interesting weekend in the latest round of the MCE British Superbike Championship from Knockhill.
They were left to fly solo with just Danny Buchan taking to the grid on Sunday afternoon, with Chris Walker sitting the weekend out.
Fans favourite ‘Stalker’ crashing heavily on Friday and was ruled out for the rest of the weekend. It was left to youngster Buchan to represent the Be Wiser team. Danny was sixth in race one and seventh in race two.
Buchan had a solid weekend at Knockhill and was improving during every session, he made some huge developments and the team made some big steps forward. It was a great confidence boost to see Danny make it to the final qualifying session and he was consistently putting in some respectable times. He eventually finished qualifying in eighth place for the opening British Superbike race.
In race one Danny got a good start and was seventh after the opening lap, the safety car was deployed for four laps to clear debris off the circuit and Danny got stuck back in when the race got underway. By lap ten he had moved up to sixth place and rode a great race to finish the 30-lap race in a solid position.
He started from his first front position of the year for race two in third position; the youngster was slightly fazed by this and he dropped back to seventh after lap two. He was pushing hard but was unable to catch the riders in front, the rain started on lap 18 and the race was red flagged. On the 11-lap re-start Danny got a much better start and fought hard for 11th laps to gain another good top ten position of 7th.
Chris Walker had some more bad luck this weekend and had a fast crash on Friday afternoon landing heavily against the Armco barriers. He visited the medical centre on Saturday morning and they sent him to hospital for further tests and scans. It was discovered he has damaged several ribs on his spine and sternum, a broken finger and some ligament damage on several limbs. He missed all proceedings on Saturday but had set a time to allow him to start from the back of the grid.
He rested on Saturday and after a medical inspection on Sunday morning he was declared unfit to race. He sustained some very painful injuries and between the medics and the team they decided it was best he did not take part in the races at Knockhill, his first missed race since Snetterton 1994.
Speaking after a testing weekend for the team, Hill said: “Firstly it was a huge shame not to have Chris racing for us this weekend as he has shown some really good form recently. He is very bashed up and we all wish him well and a speedy recovery for Brands.
“It was left to Danny to fly the flag for the team and he did a great job here at Knockhill. His times were strong and proved he has the pace of the top riders. He has a fairly big disadvantage with his height as this has proved a hindrance this weekend but it is something we are looking at working round on the bike and making changes for him.
“He was very consistent in practice and had a great qualifying session and he continued to improve his times all weekend. We are really pleased with his results this weekend and will help him to keep this form for the remaining races of the season.”
Images courtesy of Jon Jessop Photography