As we reflect on our recent racing activities in Scotland it is fair to say the weather was ‘changeable’ at best.

The three day racing schedule was a combination of ‘shades’ and ‘waders’ which required agility and resilience throughout. Gauging how to prep the riders and machines was interesting to say the least, thank goodness we had all 16 weather apps to hand…

Free Practice One :

For Alastair this first session was used solely for familiarisation. By his own admission Knockhill is a little bit of a bogey track for him with his results in previous season being mixed. We had gained a setup direction on a track day earlier in June and fortunately for us the conditions were similar so Alastair used all thirty minutes to knock off twenty three laps bedding himself in.

Oliver on the other hand knows the 1.27 mile Knockhill loop extremely well. Hailing from Scotland this was his home circuit. Oliver has had some great results at Knockhill on a number of machines in a number of championhips in his racing career. Session one was his perfect opportunity to have a run round to focus his body and mind on the job in hand.

Alastair finshed P5 (54.52secs)

Oliver finished P16 (56.38secs)

Free Practice Two :

This session started in ‘very’ wet conditions and despite the streams on circuit which lead to heavy spray Alastair got straight to work. Very much a magician in such conditions Alastair was unphased and pushed the pace to the ending the session with a P1.

Oliver displayed his skills and abilities in his second session demonstrating what being from Scotland teaches you about racing in Scotland. He progressed superbly well through the timing screens out pacing some highly credible yet cautious competition.

Alastair P1 (54.71secs)

Oliver P10 (55.46 secs)

Qualifying Session (Q2) :

Given the pace of both riders their free practice sessions they both immediatly qualified for Q2 negating the need to participate in Q1.

Conditions for this session were dry but cloudy, dark cloudy.. Luckily it did stay dry and the pace improved significantly.

Alastair does what he does best by steadily going faster and faster lap by lap getting the best performance from his tyres. He recorded his best lap on seventeen of seventeen.  

Oliver knew the pace of this session would improve as the other comptitors favoured the drier conditions but once he found some space on circuit he could build his sector pace. He did a sterling job to find his best time of the weekend so far on lap nine of seventeen.

Alastair P6 (49.65secs)

Oliver P20 (50.60secs)

Sprint Race 18 laps :

Due to some more gravity fed mositure, previous races in other classes brought a delay to Saturday afternoons race proceedings and a revised schedule. Our twenty lap sprint race was reduced from 20 laps to 18 as a concequence. 

Delays and changes to schedules can be disruptive. A teams activity and a riders focus tends to be predetermined and almost metronmic, but everyone in the garage held their nerve and got on with it..

Two hours later the scheduled the race got underway at 17.30pm, and what a race it was…

Alastair got away cleanly from P6 and settled into a race pace pretty much from lap one. Knockhill is always entertaining and highly contested. With so few overtaking opportunities, timing is everything, but you need to be absolutely precise on your racing lines and brakes. 

After an enthralling battle at the front Alastair crossed the line to give Binch Racing our first ever British Supersport podium. A hard earnt and hard fought third place finish. The taste of cheap Prosecco has never been sweeter, two years into our project and the “Wee Wizard” got our Yamaha R6 on the box. Delighted !!

Oliver absolutely rode the wheels off his machine, biting the screen at every opportunity to take places. On lap thirteen of eigtheen Oliver recorded his fastest lap again with a 50.31 which demonstrates perfectly how he is progressing in an extremely competitive field. 

His efforts and hardwork came to fruition as the race drew to close. The whole team were delighted to cheer Oliver across the line to secure his first championship points! A tremendous thirteenth place finish !! Six points in the bag and his records officially opened. Wonderful !!

Feature Race 22 laps :

As with Saturdays Sprint race, Sundays Feature race had to be reduced to twenty two laps rather than twenty six. In the wet conditions there was an accident at the rear of the field during the warm up lap which brought out the paddock stands and the grid was reformed so the injured rider could be tendered to.

After a slight delay the race got underway and there was a real desire from everyone to push on and see if we could further improve Saturdays fantastic team performance. 

Alastair got away really well using his wet weather abilities to his advatnage. By the end of lap two his was dicing for a second place with a hope of maybe pushing for a win. However other teams had made adjustments and their larger capacity machines at the front were getting out of the corners quicker, a gap started to form. Equally the pace improved behind him which pushed him back to P5. Never one to give up or roll over he knew he could secure another great fourth place and he waitied patiently to secure it on the very last lap on the final hairpin corner. 

A great weekend for Alastair in terms of the championhsip. His third and fourth place finishes have evelated him to fourth in the overall championship standings.

Oliver once again did us absolutely proud and shot out the blocks like a scalded cat. His pace in the first race elevated his start to twelfth on the grid for race two. He did not waste the opportunity to push hard from the off. Wet racing is not for everyone. Oliver knew he could capitilise in front of a bumper home crowd. Cheered on by lots of fans, family and friends he strategically chipped away at the competitors in front of him to bring home another milestone finish, a top ten !!! Seventh in class after only his fourth compeitive ride on the bike is absolutely fantastic !! Two milestones in one weekend, the cherry in our Scottish cake.

The team have taken some time to relax for a few weekends, get things refreshed and we are ready to go again at Snetterton on 5th, 6th & 7th of July !! 

Thank you as always on behalf of all the boys and girls within the team. We all really appreciate your continued support and we are very grateful.