Thursday 23 May

17:49:36

Web
inter-bike.co.uk

Hard work doesn't pay off this time round

E-mail
Wednesday, 22 June 2011 00:07
Graeme Gowla Gowland ina action at KnockhillGraeme ‘Gowla’ Gowland had a hard weekend at Knockhill on his WFR Honda Evo machine as the Scottish circuit continued to live up to its reputation of supplying changeable weather and challenging racing.

Having arrived at the Dunfermline track hoping for a dry weekend he was faced instead with wet conditions throughout free practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday.

It was the first time that Gowla had been able to focus on his wet weather riding and set up his bike accordingly. He had varying times throughout the free practice sessions as the team and he tried different settings prior to the F1-style knockout qualifying.

Qualifying got under way late on Saturday afternoon due to an earlier oil spillage on the track and the weather was showery by the time the Superbikes got out on the circuit. However Gowla got his head down to finish as the fastest Evo, and 12th overall in the Superbike class, in qualifying 1. He progressed into the second qualifying session to post the 15th fastest time in class and finish 3rd in the Evo category behind Glen Richards and Simon Andrews, but understandably did not make the cut for the third and final qualifying session.

Not wanting to break from tradition the Knockhill micro climate arrived on race day and brought with it sunshine and showers, fortunately the track stayed dry and the races were ran in good conditions.

Race 1 saw Gowla make a clean start in 14th place and the second Evo bike behind Richards. He was relegated to 3rd by Scott Smart on lap 4 but stayed in close pursuit. He re-passed Smart on lap 17 to move back up to 2nd and with Andrews tagging on they embarked in a three way battle to sort out the final two podium positions. On lap 22 they were starting to lap slower riders and Andrews moved into 3rd with Smart hanging on. Gowla kept his cool and rode his own race but knew the attack would come on the final hairpin. He protected his line but Andrews managed to pass him taking Smart with him and it was a sprint to the line and unfortunately it was Gowla who missed out.

Gowla unfortunately never got the chance to make amends in race 2 as his bike suffered a mechanical fault on the way to the grid to take his place for the race start so he had to retire.

“I have to take away the positives and not dwell on the negatives. I got plenty of wet weather riding under my belt. I qualified well and had a good race although after all my hard work I was gutted to lose the chance of my first podium on the final corner but that’s racing. I will now focus on the next round at Snetterton in two weeks’ time”

Article source: Gemma Gowland
 
Next >