Knockhill CRMC Round 4

Team Eddy’s travelled all the way up to Knockhill for the fourth round of the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club championship where we stood at the top of the championship. The last time I went to Knockhill I was 6 maybe 7 and even then I obviously didnt pay any attention to the circuit as I couldn’t remember anything about it. Most of the CRMC lot were in the same boat though, there was only Ed and a couple of Scots that had done it before.

We had two practice sessions on the Friday afternoon which was probably just as well as it gave us all a chance to know where we were going. It’s quite a technical circuit to be honest, there’s lots of up and down corners and a fair few of them have a nasty camber but all in all it wasn’t too bad. The first session went well, we just took it steady and built our speed up as each lap went on. From what we could tell there were only two people that could give us any trouble, these were the Scottish lads; young Colin Lewis and his passenger Mikey Reid and his old man Alistair Lewis (Lewi), these boys were both quick. Matt Kingsmill, our championship rival was having trouble with top end power. Our second practice session was going equally as well as the first until we got a puncture in our rear tyre coming out of the hairpin, so that was that. We got back to the paddock only to find the valve on the back tyre had completely exploded and all we were left with was the rubber, not good. Luckily though we managed to get it fixed and was all set for Saturday’s racing.

Saturday was quite cold with the breeze but the sun was still shining and that was all that mattered really. Race 1 then, we started from pole and felt quite comfortable knowing that Colin and Lewi had to start from the back of the grid. However, this was all about to change…. We got quite a good start and went off the line with Matty, we followed him for a lap and were catching him up, he just had a little bit more grip coming out of the corners. We came out of the hairpin and back onto the start/finish straight and to our amazement Colin Lewis came flying past us…. race on. We overtook Matty and were closely following Colin, we just couldn’t find a way past him though, he had more grip coming out of the corners and by the time we caught him up again on the brakes, we were exiting another corner. In the end Colin won by just over a second so all credit to him for doing so well.

The second race was pretty much the same as the first one, however we couldn’t keep up with Colin as well as what we did in the first race as he got a better start. Again though it was a case of we’d catch him on the brakes and he’d pull away coming out of the corners. Colin, however got lucky with the back markers and was able to get through them without any problems, we however had to wait before we could get past them. Again all credit to Colin, he is a fantastic rider.

Sunday, however brought rain… by the the bucket load. There was standing water everywhere on the track, it actually looked like a river. I actually dont mind racing in the rain, especially because you have to use your head, anybody could passenger in the dry but in the wet it’s a completely different story. Our back tyre wasn’t filling me with confidence though, it’s supposed to be an all weather tyre, it actually looked more like a slick we’d run on the Formula 2s.

Race 1 – Conditions still hadn’t cleared up by the time we went out to race, if anything they’d actually got worse. We went out on the warm up lap and we were slipping and sliding everywhere, the back end was letting go and the front was washing out…. what a nightmare this was going to be. Still, it’s a different story when the flag drops. We actually got quite a good start and we 3rd into the first corner but was hanging back a little bit, which was probably just as well cos Matt had tried to send Colin grass tracking then Colin had tried to give him some back and then they eventually managed to get themselves in a straight line and get going. We eventually overtook Matt but could really get going anywhere because everytime we tried to it tried to send us spinning off into the gravel. Colin had cleared off into the distance to the point where we couldn’t see him anymore and we had a comfortable lead over Matt so we knocked it off a bit. He was creeping up slowly though and by the last lap he was right up our arse I gave Ed a bit of a squeeze to let him know and now we were riding defensively, luckily for us Matt spun on the right hander just before the flat out left which gave us a comfortable 2nd.

Race 2 – The rain had stoppped now but the track was very greasey which I think is actually worse than being proper wet. At least when it’s wet you know it’s going to let go, when it’s greasey sometimes it does let go and sometimes it doesn’t, you have to treat every corner different. We got a bit of a pants start to be honest and was now in fourth place with Colin out in front, Matt second and Mike Bellaby 3rd. We managed to get past Bell at the flat out left hander, but Matt proved more difficult. Once we did get past Matt we left him but it was all too late to catch Colin up as he was the length of the start/finish straight in front. We cruised round to take our fourth 2nd of the weekend.

I quite enjoyed Knockhill, it’s not my favourite circuit but it’s not my worst either. Colin Lewis is definately one to watch out for, Ed reckons he could be the new Jock Taylor!

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