It is becoming an up-and-down season for the Ulsterman Ian Lowry in the MCE British Superbike Championship. Ian had been running really well all weekend at Knockhill circuit on the Padgetts Honda in the wet and dry conditions. However, he had no luck during the two 30-lap races and was unfortunate to crash out of fifth place in race one and had a tyre issue in race two and was only able to gain tenth place.
The Padgetts team made some big changes over the weekend to Ian's Honda and they worked hard to find a good set up for the Superpole qualifying session, he got through every session and was eager to put a good qualifying time in to ensure a good placing on the grid at the short and narrow Scottish circuit. He worked his way through to fifth and on the second row for the first 30-lap race; he got a good start and held his grid position at the end of the first lap. He had a small dice with Nori Haga before having some clear track in front of him he was making good progress and caught up to the back of the leading four and setting some very good and consistently fast lap times. Unfortunately on lap 13 he tucked the front of the Padgetts Honda and crashed out at the fast Scotsmans' corner, uninjured but angry Ian's race was over.
In the second race Ian had put in a fast time for his placing on the grid and sat in fourth place, he gained a great start and was third by turn three but pushed back to fourth at the end of the opening lap. By lap nine Lowry's tyre had started to wear and his lap times were suffering and he was dropping places lap after lap, he had to fight with it and bring the Padgetts Honda home in the best place he could which was tenth.
Ian - "I'm really disappointed with how today went as the Padgetts Honda has been running really well all weekend. It's beginning to be frustrating now and every weekend I'm running really well in practice and qualifying and then something goes wrong. The crash in the first race was my own fault, I'm not really sure what happened but I was pushing quite hard and just tucked the front. I was pretty mad as I knew I had a good race pace and my times were really good and on the same pace as the front runners it's just frustrating. There wasn't much damage done to the bike and I got a really good start in race two but from early on it was sliding about and I was struggling for grip. I'm a bit gutted as despite the crash I was feeling really confident going into race two after seeing my lap times from the first races. I'm still fifth in the Championship but I'm not happy I need to start getting good points again and get my season back on track."
