Biblical Weather but good results for MSS duo

MSS Colchester Kawasaki battled against the dramatic conditions as the weather got all ‘Biblical’ on them at the Scottish circuit of Knockhill this weekend. Both Simon Andrews and Gary Mason put in strong performances despite multiple red flags and difficult riding conditions, testing concentration and bike control to the limit.

The MSS Colchester Kawasaki team were looking to build on their strong recent performances at Mallory with Simon Andrews getting back ‘on song’ after his injuries and Gary Mason hoping to get back on form.

An incredibly close qualifying session saw the two MSS Colchester Kawasaki team riders battling well within touch of the sharp end of the timing sheets and the entire top fifteen within one second of each other. Their incredibly tight qualifying eventually saw the duo in 12^th (Andrews) and 13^th (Mason) meant both narrowly missed out on reaching ‘Q3’ in the Swan Combi Roll for Pole.

What had been a good weekend for the Knockhill circuit and its staff took a turn for the worse in a big way on Sunday morning as rain and strong winds lashed the Scottish hillside. Proceedings were delayed while the track dried up for most of the morning before the National Superstock 600 series finally got the show on the road at midday.

The first attempt at starting the British Superbike championship round was met with weather considered epic even by Scottish standards just one lap into the race. Not one but two more restarts later and the race finally got underway half way through Sunday afternoon with both MSS Colchester Kawasaki riders having strong first laps which saw Gary up to 6^th and Simon up to 9^th as a dry line began to finally emerge on the track.

By lap five Andrews had got the better of his teammate and the duo were battling each other in 8^th and 9^th on their Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja machines, closing on the then championship leader Tommy Hill in 7^th. Andrews got the better of Hill after mid-race and left his teammate to battle hard for the remaining laps to get past the Suzuki rider. An incredibly close last lap tussle, and a dramatic last run up to the line, saw Mason and Hill doing the rarest of rare things and finishing the race a dead heat. With the timing sheets recording exactly the same finish times both Gary and Tommy were awarded eighth place on the results sheets.

Race two brewed in much the same way with the weather brewing as the riders set off on their warm-up laps and with rain inevitably falling once again as the red lights went out. Not for the first time during the weekend red flags quickly brought proceedings to a halt. This time it was Simon Andrews who caused the premature end as he was high-sided off his Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja in front of the marauding pack as they turned into turn one for the first time. The resulting mayhem caught out Simon’s teammate Gary as well as half a dozen other riders and the race had to be stopped.

Gary was able to get back to the garage where all hands were on deck, including team manager Nick Morgan getting his hands dirty helping prep Gary’s damaged bike for the restart. But it was all to no avail as the weather conditions worsened and BSB Race Director Stuart Higgs had to call time on the meeting for safety reasons.

Simon Andrews was unhurt in the crash but understandably was disappointed with the outcome of the weekend, “It was a bad end to a miserable day’s weather but we were lucky really as the cancellation of the second race played into our hands. We wouldn’t have been out there to be honest as the bike was too badly beaten up so for no-one to score points helped us. Other than that weekend went ok, I’m pretty pleased with the seventh. I’m looking forward to Snett now and some good weather again!”

Gary Mason, “It’s not been so bad as it might look if you watched it on telly! We were working hard to get the bike working well and I felt like we had a good set-up in the dry so it was disappointing to wake up Sunday and it be like it was. The first race was close and we reeled Tommy [Hill] in nicely and you could see he was having real grip troubles in a straight line. I was gutted to not quite pip him on the line – it couldn’t have been closer!”

Howie Mainwaring had a tough weekend in the Metzeler National Superstock 1000 championship aboard his MSS Colchester Kawasaki ZX-10R. The title contender was buoyed by his outing supporting MotoGP at the previous rounds and was keen to get back to slightly lower-key, but no less competitive domestic action at the Scottish circuit. An incredibly close qualifying saw the top six under lap record pace and the top five within 0.3s of each other. In wet morning warm up Howie comfortably lead the timing sheets and felt happy for the wet race.

Difficult and changeable weather on race day was again the order of the day and tyre choices were critical for the start of the Superstock race. A call to go out on wet tyres back-fired as Howie realised how quickly the track was drying on his sighting lap. Speedy changes on the grid saw him switch to a dry rear tyre but it proved not enough with nearly all the rest of the strong field on a full dry set-up. Battling hard to make the difference Howie eventually pushed the rain front tyre too hard and ran off the track at the hairpin on lap 11. He finished out of the points in 21^st despite getting back onboard and the only conciliation being that he maintains a strong hold on second spot in the championship.

Howie said, “It’s a blow and I’m really disappointed not to have closed the gap on John [Kirkham] after we looked so good in the wet warm up. The weather was so changeable and the track dried so quickly we took a bit of a gamble and had to settle for just the rear dry and it wasn’t enough. I’ll wipe the slate and look forward to the fast Snetterton to be back up there and challenging for the race win.”

Young Danny Buchan started the weekend’s racing well for the MSS Colchester team in the Metzeler National Superstock 600 with a mature result in treacherous conditions. Starting the race fifth in the championship and knowing the cold, wet Knockhill was no place to take to many risks the youngster played a smart game on his Kawasaki Team Green/MSS Colchester Kawasaki ZX-6R settling into his own rhythm. A level-headed podium looked on the cards for Danny until a last lap charge from Hawick rider John Dean (making a one-off appearance and using his local knowledge to good effect) pipped him into fourth spot. The result was a good one for Danny’s championship campaign however as he moved up to third in the standings with seven rounds remaining.

Team boss Nick Morgan summed up a hard day at the races for the MSS Colchester Kawasaki squad “Overall it wasn’t as bad as it might have looked immediately after the second BSB race was red flagged. It worked in our favour in some ways but obviously everyone really wanted a nice dry weekend and some cracking close racing, like this track can provide. Both Simon and Gary did a good job in race one and got great first laps under their belts to haul themselves up from their grid slots. Race two looked bad when Simon went down but fortunately everyone’s ok and, like I say, it could have been a lot worse.Howie had a tough one and it’s just one of those calls you have to make in difficult weather conditions. It back-fired and what had been a strong weekend for him quickly turned sour. He’ll be back strong as ever at Snetterton though and the fast circuit should play into his hands. He’s due a win! Danny did a good job for us again in Superstock 600s. It can so easily have been a crash-fest in that class in those conditions but once again he showed a mature head and narrowly missed the podium.”