Team Green success story Danny Buchan wins his first Superbike race!
It was a historic weekend for Team Green and Danny Buchan as he stormed to his first ever Superbike race win at the fifth round of the British Superbike Championship at Knockhill. The undulating circuit north of the border saw four seasons of weather in one weekend, but it was Buchan who will remember the weekend most fondly.
Friday saw beautiful sunny skies and two strong opening practise sessions for Essex rider Buchan, who cemented his position within the top three riders and setting himself up for a strong weekend. Saturday brought inclement weather and a delayed qualifying session which ran in wet conditions and ended with Buchan starting race 1 on the front row of the grid in second position.
In what was a thrilling encounter, Buchan battled hard on his FS-3 Racing Kawasaki ZX-10RR with local hero Tarran Mackenzie before eventually getting the better of the Scotsman and developing a very strong 7 second lead. Crossing the line for his first ever Superbike race win, an extremely emotional Buchan was greeted by his wife and daughter in parc ferme amongst an adorning FS-3 team!
Unfortunately, race two wasn't meant to be as Buchan crashed out of the lead whilst battling with Scott Redding, but he still retains his position in the all-important Showdown top six and is full of confidence heading into Snetterton in three week's time.
It wasn't just the Superbike class that was a success this weekend, as Team 109 Kawasaki also showed they are becoming a very strong team claiming two race wins themselves. In a weekend of firsts, Junior Supersport rider, Curtis Trimble won his first ever BSB race on his Ninja 400, after only crossing over from motocross to tarmac racing at the start of this year. On the other side of the garage, Eunan McGlinchey won his second race of the season in the Junior Superstock class on his Ninja ZX-6R finishing off a successful weekend for the Irish team.
Ross Burridge, Senior Racing Co-ordinator for Kawasaki Motors UK was really pleased with the weekends results, saying “I have been working with Danny for ten years now, and have seen him sign for Team Green in the Junior Superstock class back in 2009 right the way through to seeing him win his first Superbike race this weekend! I am so happy for him, he's never given up and thoroughly deserves it. At the same time, I was chuffed to see Team 109 Kawasaki do so well. They are a great, passionate team that want to develop riders, and they are doing just that. Great weekend.”
