Redding powers to Knockhill BSB win as crash denies Buchan double

Knockhill BSB - Race Results (2)

Scott Redding has returned to the summit of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after notching up a fourth victory of the season in a truncated second race at Knockhill, albeit after Danny Buchan denied himself a double victory by crashing out from the lead.

Starting on pole position as a reward for his charge from 15th to second in race one, with Buchan – a BSB winner for the first time earlier in the day – alongside him, the race tantalisingly looked to become a straight fight between the two fastest riders of the weekend.

Indeed, though it was Tarran Mackenzie that got the better start of the front row trio to lead initially, Buchan that powered in front on lap one before Redding followed suit on lap two.

Redding proceeded to dive into the lead on lap ten shortly after the resumption of action from a safety car period, but with the pair stretching away from the pack Buchan struck back on lap 17 with a confident overtake into Clarke.

However, Buchan’s hopes of making it a double for FS-3 Kawasaki came to an abrupt end just two laps later when he lost the front at Butchers and crashed out.

Gallingly for Buchan, he’d have needed only five more laps upright to secure victory as the race was called to a halt on lap 25 of 30 when Bradley Ray’s Buildbase Suzuki blew in a dramatic way on the run to the hairpin, spraying fluid across the racing line to give organisers no choice but to throw the red flag.

It meant Redding was in the right place at the right time to be classified as winner, though he might have been ‘saved by the flag’ as he was being chased down by Mackenzie, the McAMS Yamaha rider recovering from an earlier scuffle that dropped him to fourth to recover to second place.

Completing the podium to bring some joy at the end of an otherwise tough weekend, Tommy Bridewell maintained his strong run of form in third. However, he has been overhauled by Redding in the overall standings, the ex-MotoGP rider four points up on his Ducati counterpart.

Josh Brookes finished fourth on an unusually muted weekend for the Australian, with Andrew Irwin getting the redemption of a top five finish in fifth after throwing away an identical result with a crash in race one.

With Ray’s expired Suzuki removing himself from the results in sixth, Peter Hickman took the spot to bolster his Title Showdown hopes, ahead of Dan Linfoot, Luke Mossey, Glenn Irwin and James Ellison. Race one podium winner Xavi Fores finished 11th in a race of only 17 finishers.

Elsewhere, Jason O’Halloran suffered a double DNF after suffering more technical issues that led to another Black/Orange flag of the day, while Iddon compounded a dismal weekend for Tyco BMW after a crash on lap three saw him stretchered off course just a day after his team-mate Keith Farmer suffered broken legs in a crash at exactly the same corner.