Vancraft Triumph Round 5 Knockhill review

 Motorpoint British Supersport

Jimmy Hill and Josh Caygill riding for Vancraft Triumph had a varied weekend at round five of the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship at Knockhill. Jimmy was unlucky to crash out of race one from 12th position but gained 14th and some Championship points in race two. Josh was 21st in race one and was unfortunate to narrowly miss out on a points scoring position in race two where he finished in 16th.

In the changing weather conditions over the weekend Jimmy managed to qualify the Vancraft Triumph in 14th place for race one. He got boxed into the first turn and was sitting in 15th place after the opening lap; he soon got his head down and started to work through the pack. He was soon up to 12th when the safety car was deployed on lap three which stayed out on track until the end of lap eight. Jimmy got back on the pace but the heat was taken out of the tyres and he crashed out the following lap. He was placed 16th on the grid for race two and another bad start saw him in 18th after the opening lap, he worked hard and managed to get through to 14th place.

Jimmy Hill - "It was another mixed weekend at Knockhill I just want to start making progress and be up near the sharp end again but I'm struggling to do that. We struggled to find a good set up all weekend and I was unlucky to crash out of race one but think my tyres had got cold from following the safety car. In race two on Sunday I got arm pump again around the scar tissue from my wrist operation, it's very frustrating as I'd not suffered with it all weekend until the race on Sunday. I hope we can make some progress at Oulton."

Josh managed to qualify in 19th for the first 18-lap race on Saturday, with the formatted three per row on the grid this meant Josh had a lot of work to do. The tight first corner is always awkward and Josh lost some places after the opening lap and despite being locked in his own battle he finished in 21st. He was 23rd for race two and was forced to a near stop on the opening lap to avoid a crashed rider and despite being forced to the back of the pack he worked extremely hard to get back through to 16th.

Josh Caygill - "It was a tough weekend and we experience all sorts of different weather over the weekend we were lucky that both races were dry. I'd been struggling with set up all weekend but I felt pretty happy about race two. I had to totally stop to avoid hitting Sam Hornsey on the first lap so I knew I had a lot of work to do but I found a pretty good rhythm and managed to get back to 16th, just wish I'd been able to get into the points."

Metzeler Superstock 600s

Joe Collier racing for the Vancraft Triumph team in the Metzeler Superstock 600 Championship ended up 19th in the chaotic race. With only one dry qualifying session on Friday Joe ended up 17th on the grid but was 10th in wet qualifying on Saturday. The race was complicated and was red flagged and restarted as a 10-lap sprint race which was then red flagged again after only seven laps.

Joe Collier - "The mixed weather this weekend didn't help as in the wet I was running really well but only just managed to get a set up for the first qualifying session on Friday which put me in 17th on the grid. The race was just a nightmare with all the red and yellow flags, then it was re-started and stopped again I found it really hard to settle into a rythme and get a good pace with all the carnage. I'm just a bit gutted as I wanted a better result at Knockhill but hopefully Oulton will be better for us."


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