Hawk Colchester Kawasaki made strong progress in qualification, and were looking forward to even stronger on race day at Knockhill Circuit this weekend, 1st July. Scott Smart former winner at Knockhill for Hawk, suffered through no fault of his own when he was involved in a heavy crash during Sunday morning’s warm up session when he was taken out by Yamaha mounted. Tommy Hill. Smart damaged his shoulder extensively and despite battling on bravely for the team he was unable to complete the first Superbike race and was forced to pull in on lap 12 of the 22 lap race.
Commenting “I’m gutted about the crash that I had in morning warm up, I was hit by Tommy and had no where to go. I landed heavily on my left shoulder but wanted to try and race as I didn’t want to let the team down who had been working so hard all weekend. It’s a long way to come to end up injured in a warm up session. I’m not happy but hopefully I will be fully bike fit for Oulton.”
Peter Hickman has struggled in recent races and has suffered a number of crashes denting his confidence, which had a knock on effect at Knockhill. Wanting to ride a safe race Hicky rode steady after qualifying in 18th position but could only salvage 23rd position in the race and brought the Hawk Colchester Kawasaki home safely. It was decided by the team to not run him in the second race and the situation will be reviewed for the next round at Oulton Park in a few weeks time.
He said “It’s been a tricky couple of months and I’ve never had so many crashes. It’s really taken effect and hard to get your head back in full form and think positive. I knew that I had to finish and I just wanted to bring the Kawasaki home in one piece in the first race. I knew I was struggling with my times and therefore it was decided that I best not go out in the second race as it wouldn’t do me any favours. I hope I can get things sorted by Oulton and get back in the points.”
Superstock Cup rider David Hallett made his debut at the 1.27-mile long Scottish circuit and was unlucky during the race to be caught up in a crash at the hairpin which left him with no where to go after moving up from 29th to 17th on the 1st lap. Due to the horrendous weather conditions the scheduled second race was cancelled and is to be rescheduled for later in the season. He moves on to Oulton Park confident he can match his excellent ride there earlier this year.
Stuart Hicken commented “Conditions have been terrible this weekend, but I must thank all my staff for there continued hard work, the results don’t show all the hard work currently being put in from the Chief technician to hospitality staff, we will move on to Croft on Wednesday for testing and look forward to our next meeting at Oulton Park.”
Related News
