Virgin Media Optoma Loans Yamaha riders, Tommy Hill and Hudson Kennaugh fell victim to the circumstances after the weather rapidly closed in early on in the Superbike Qualifying session. With only a handful of laps between them in the dry conditions they qualified in 10th and 14th respectively for round seven of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Knockhill yesterday, 30 June.
With rain forecast to reach the circuit during the afternoon all riders took to the 1.27-mile circuit in order to begin the qualifying session. With just 12 minutes of the session gone the rain started, seeing the entire grid retire to the pit garages for the majority of the remaining time.
A wet practice session was duly declared with riders swapping slicks for wets in order to gain some valuable wet weather set-up data should the rain fall during Sunday's two 30-lap races.
Tommy Hill:
"It goes without saying that we'd both like to be further up the grid. Everyone knew the rain was coming, and in hindsight we could have planned our qualifiers for the start of the session. We just got caught short on how quickly it came in."
Supersport
Despite both Tom and Billy crashing during the morning's first qualifying session, the Virgin Media Yamaha Supersport pair both qualified on the third row ahead of Sunday's 28-lap race.
Billy McConnell set an early fast pace topping the timesheets this morning before disaster struck when he lost the front end and crashed out at Scotsman. Back on the bike for qualifying two, Billy managed to improve on his morning times. However, it was not quite enough to get him up to his characteristic front row qualifying position.
Tom Grant was making good progress in the first qualifying session on race tyres when he clipped a wet curb at Clarke, causing a red flag situation due to the position of his Yamaha YZF-R6 on the track. Luckily Tom walked away unhurt, continuing the rest of the session setting up his spare bike. Qualifying two saw Tom improve on his time to elevate him from 14th to 10th, one place ahead of his team-mate Billy in 11th.
Tom Grant:
"I finally got a good pace going on race tyres in the second qualifying session but I struggled with the traffic when I was on qualifying tyres. The day has got better for me after crashing this morning. I'm confident for the race today."
Rob McElnea, Team Principal:
"Our qualifying positions don't necessarily reflect our progress with the bikes working at this circuit across both Superbike and Supersport. Tomorrow it's forecast to rain, which will change everything anyway. We can only go forward from here and look to pick up some results that I feel we deserve."
Virgin Media Cup
As the qualifying session for the sixth round of the 2007 Virgin Media Cup got under way, conditions worsened. With rain falling heavily by the end of the sole thirty-minute qualifier, it was local rider David Paton who stole his second successive pole position at Knockhill ahead of South African rider Dane Hellyer.
Championship leader BJ Toal lines up third whilst Dean Jones occupies the final front row position and chalks up his highest qualifying result to date. Regular race winner, James Webb sat the middle part of the session out and was unable to improve on his time, leaving him back in an uncharacteristic 9th on the third row of the grid.
This was the first time that the Virgin Media Cup riders had faced a wet session and it gave a number of riders the opportunity to showcase their wet weather riding skills. David Haire, Jay Fernandez and Daniel Brill excelled previous qualifying results and will join Dean Hipwell on the second row for today's 18-lap showdown.
All twenty-four riders taking to the track managed to keep their bikes upright in the hazardous conditions. Despite both crashing during the morning free practice session, newcomers to the Championship, Ronan Quarmby and Steven Cusick, qualified in 14th and 17th respectively, ahead of some seasoned regulars.
Niall Mackenzie:
"It's always a worry for the Cup guys to go out in such wet conditions. They don't run on wets so the level of grip is not the same. To see local hero David Paton on pole is very fitting, but what a great ride from all of them. To have no crashes is a credit to them all. Dane Hellyer was impressive, he's not ridden here before and it looked like he may have had it at one point."
David Paton:
"I'm delighted to be on pole at my home round, I just want to make sure that I carry that through to the top of the podium for tomorrow. I've a lot of support here and I'm not planning on disappointing anyone."
Today's full race programme kicks off with the first of two scheduled 30-lap British Superbike races at 13:00. The lights go out on the Supersport race 15:50, with the 18-lap Virgin Media Cup following at 14:35. Finally, the second Superbike race lines up for 15:40 start.
ITV1 - 15:00 - 16:30 (Sunday 1 July)
Sky Sports Xtra - 20:00 - 23:30 (Sunday 1 July)
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