James East – Idaq Motorsport
Round 5 Pirelli National Superstock Championship – Knockhill
Knockhill is the venue for round 5 after a successful round 4 at Donington Park for the Idaq Motorsport team.
This tight a short circuit promotes great racing but is known for its turbulent weather.
James gets a good start to the weekend underway with early pace on the bumpy 1.27 mile track in his first session on the 1000cc machine. He ends the session 6th in group A on a time of 51.458.
Qualifying 1
After some minor suspension changes James improves after 11 laps but a small error at turn 6 made James lose the front and fall down.
Even so James would qualify 14th overall and miss out Q2 due to wet conditions meaning improvements in time would not have been possible.
Qualifying Time – 51.318
Warm Up
After the bike is re-built James confirms that the bike is in full working order and he is confident that he can move forward in the race.
Race
James gets a fantastic start and is in the hunt with the front runners in 12th position on lap 1 and 2. On lap 3 James misses a gear on a downshift, and further in the lap the gearbox locks up going in to the hairpin.
East battles to change down the gears the whole race through and when the race is red flagged and called on lap 17 James is in 17th position.
East “ I am so disappointed and truly gutted with the result as I know I could have pushed forward in the race, I wanted finishes in the points in every round however the problem with the gearbox could not have been predicted. Something to take away from the weekend is I have cracked the starts, I am confident from now on that with my pace and a good qualifying position I will be able to run at the front and push for top 10’s in every race going forward.
We will participate in the Official BSB Test at Snetterton coming up, I will work to find the ideal set up there for the next round of which I will be aiming for a top 5 result.”
Thanks go out to James’s Personal Sponsors
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – Idaq.com – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk -Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown