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KNOCKHILL 2/3 JUNE 2007

For once Knockhill was the only dry place in Scotland! This weekend saw Knockhill host a round of the British Sidecar Championship but it also clashed with the Isle of Man TT races. This meant that there were some top class outfits on display from south of the border but also meant some Scottish competitors were missing as they were off spectating at the 100th anniversary TT.

First practice on Saturday was late in the afternoon and the session went without any problems. It was good to watch the British Sidecars practice session too and be inspired by their perfect slides round the hairpin. Tim Reeves (current World Champion) and Johnny Briggs set an unofficial 49 second lap which I believe is faster than British Superbikes. The second practice for us ‘normal’ sidecars was at nearly 8.00 pm, we decided not to go out and spent the evening checking the bike over making sure it was clean and prepped for the early start on Sunday morning. Sean Hegarty (Tim Reeves’ Eastern Airways team mate) came over to look at the set up of our sidecar as he had, until a recent change to an LCR chassis, been racing a Windle too. He thought we were pretty close with the suspension set up and wished us good luck.

With the extra sidecar classes to fit in proceedings started earlier than normal the next morning. We were up, signed on and had the bike scrutineered by 8.00 am. Practice and qualifying sessions followed. We were still hitting the 60 s/lap mark and qualified 7th for the Scottish race. Our qualifying session felt smoother than Saturday’s practice and we tried such a quick line through the chicane (thanks for the advice Mac) that we nearly took the bollards out. We were really looking forward to the racing in the afternoon.

We watched the British Sidecar qualifying and it was awesome. They are very fast into the hairpin, flick, slide and off with tyres squealing! We have a lot to learn! It looked more like racing than qualifying. Their race was also on before ours so we watched that too. It got red flagged after half a dozen laps as someone unfortunately went upside down at Clarkes. The restart was a frantic dash with Tim Reeves/Johnny Briggs and Sean Hegarty/Mark Hegarty securing an Eastern Airways double.

Our race came round and we were sitting behind Mike Keenan/Alan MacKinnon to our left and Ralph Pryde/Murray Whyte to our right. Kerr got an awesome start and flew in between the two of them. Unfortunately they are slightly more experienced into Duffus dip and took us back. Spurred on by the good start we stayed ahead of Craig and Brian Nicol and James Neil with his new passenger. Craig passed into the hairpin but we pulled away again up the hill.

Close racing at Knockhill (Image courtesy of Steve English, Steve's Place)

This had to be the most exciting racing yet. Until….. coming out of Clarkes in the next lap Kerr couldn’t get gears. He pulled off track so that the race wouldn’t be stopped thinking that the gearbox was done for. A marshal came over and asked if the chain had snapped as they had seen something hit the track. The chain was still there but the rear sprocket had gone! The hub bolts had sheared and thankfully the chain had only caused minimal damage but that was our weekend brought to an early close. Our troubles weren’t quite over as on the road home Bob’s bus started losing power up the hills. We all came to the conclusion that it was about time she had her filters replaced and thankfully she got us home. New filter broke the bank at £1.28 plus VAT!!!

The hub plates are already with one of our fabulous sponsors, Moray Firth Precision Engineering, to get new ones made before the next meeting and hopefully Terry Windle will be able to find us a driveshaft to get us up and running again before Knockhill in July. We thought that the break for the next few weeks would bring a welcome rest but looks like it’s boilersuits on and flat out to get ready for the next one.
Thanks are due, as always, to Carol for keeping us fed and watered and Bob for lifting shifting and driving. Thanks to everyone that came down to support us too. Finally a special thankyou to young Megan Nicol for supplying the all important hair bobble for Jen- you’re a life saver.

Best wishes to you all

Kerr and Jen

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