British Superbikes Round - Round 4

Knockhill

Images by Olithephoto

17th - 19th June 2022

So the 2022 British Superbikes championship is starting to become clearer now that 4 rounds and 12 races have been completed, with eight riders now setting the pace in the Championship as we head for the next round at Brands Hatch. 

Last weekend's racing at the only round north of the border, Knockhill in Scotland, was again dominated by the Yamahas of the McAMS and OMG racing teams but they didn’t get it all their own way.

The Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasakis of Jackson and Skinner were pushing the Yamahas all the way with Skinner leading the final race before crashing out.

But let’s take a step back and look at race one, the sprint. Bradley Ray set the pace in qualifying, coming in under the lap record and holding off Jason O'Halloran by the slimmest of margins by 0.005s, with Lee Jackson completing the front row. This set the agenda for the weekend, two flavours of Yamaha versus the FS-3 Kawasakis.

Ray took race one leading from the start to the chequered flag with Jason O'Halloran second and Rory Skinner third. Race two was a little more interesting with Ray's team mate Kyle Ryde taking the lead, but not for long. It was Skinner who took the lead, with Ray and the O’Show battling for second, when Leon Haslam and Storm Stacey crashed at the Hairpin bringing out the Safety Car which bunched up the leaders.

The incident cleared the front runners dropped the hammer, with O'Halloran making the move on Ray and then Skinner with four laps to go. This was O'Halloran's first win at Knockhill but the FS-3 riders were the stars of this race for me, dealing with Ray they battled each other all the way to the line with Jackson just taking second from Skinner.

The local rider Rory Skinner badly wanted that home town win and set off on a blistering pace in the final race. Pushing hard he went down, dashing the hopes of the Knockhill regular fans who wanted to see a fellow Scotsman taking the win.

This gifted the race to O'Halloran to make it two wins and a podium from three, a decent weekend for the Australian as he closed the gap on the championship leader Ray who came in second ahead of Jackson.

There is a slight delay in Superbike proceedings, with the next round of the championship at Brands Hatch 22 - 23 July.

If you can’t wait until then, the World Superbikes will be at Donington Park the weekend before on 15 - 17 Jul where I expect a few of the BSB riders to get wild card rides. The Pistoclick team will be there to capture the action.