Samsung Honda celebrated a successful outing at the fourth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Knockhill today as Ryuichi Kiyonari scored his first double podium finish since 2010.

The triple BSB champion has had a challenging start to the 2013 season, however he arrived in Scotland determined to turn his season around and he was able to do just that, claiming third place in both races. Team-mate Alex Lowes had a more difficult weekend, crashing out of contention at the Hairpin in the opening race. The Lincolnshire lad fought a hard battle in race two to take a respectable fourth at the flag.

In the Motorpoint British Supersport Championship Jason O'Halloran also had a tough weekend. The Australian rider was taken out by Glen Richards’s crash on the warm up lap of the Sprint race, ending any hopes of a strong finish on Saturday. In the Feature race today he was caught up with another rider yet again, causing damage to his Samsung Honda and forcing him to later retire.

Havier Beltran – Team Manager

To start with Alex, this has been one of his tough circuits in the past so to bounce back with a fourth place in race two was pleasing, but we were all obviously disappointed with the crash in race one. He is now ready to move on from here to the next round at Snetterton and get back to the podium again. I am very happy for Kiyo, it has been a difficult season but we believed he had the potential which he showed today. Clearly something hasn’t been right, perhaps we were going in different directions but since the last round we have been able to understand what we need to do and now he is more confident again.

In Supersport it has been a really disappointing weekend and Jason never seems to have any luck here at Knockhill. We don’t seem to be in the place we had planned to be in at this point of the season and so we hope we can improve at Snetterton.


Ryuichi Kiyonari

To take this double podium is very good, but now I want better results next time out. For sure I’m very happy and now I hope for more results and I will be trying to do my best to go faster as I want wins. I will keep trying to improve my performance in every round to build on these results. It’ll be difficult but I will work hard with the team. I feel much happier and I have to thank the team.

Alex Lowes

In the first race I was going good, but was struggling in the last sector compared to Byrne and Brookes and the crash was just unlucky. We made some changes for the second race but they didn’t work as well as we had hoped, but if you can’t be third you may as well be fourth because points are important for the championship, especially here at a circuit where I have struggled in the past. It is never nice to drop back in the standings, but I used my head as points are more important than having another crash.

Jason O’Halloran

I think me and this circuit just don’t get on as I never have any luck here. It's been a difficult weekend where not much went right for us, I had a decent pace right from the start, but instead of some good results we left a bit battered and bruised. We will come back at Snetterton and try again!

British Superbikes Race One

1) Shane Byrne 2) Josh Brookes, 3) Ryuichi Kiyonari (HON), 4) Keith Farmer, 5) Chris Walker, 6) James Westmoreland, 7) James Ellison, 8) Dan Linfoot, 9) PJ Jacobsen, 10) Peter Hickman, DNF) Alex Lowes (HON)

British Superbikes Race Two

1) Shane Byrne, 2) Josh Brookes, 3) Ryuichi Kiyonari (HON), 4) Alex Lowes (HON), 5) Chris Walker, 6) James Westmoreland, 7) PJ Jacobsen, 8) Jon Kirkham, 9) Peter Hickman, 10) Howie Mainwaring

British Supersport Race One

1) Ben Wilson, 2) Alastair Seeley, 3) Stuart Easton, 4) Graeme Gowland, 5) Glenn Irwin, 6) Richard Cooper, 7) Billy McConnell, 8) Luke Stapleford, 9) Luke Mossey, 10) David Paton, DNF) Jason O’Halloran (HON)

British Supersport Race Two

1) Ben Wilson, 2) Stuart Easton, 3) Billy McConnell, 4) Alastair Seeley, 5) Graeme Gowland, 6) Richard Cooper, 7) Glenn Irwin, 8) Luke Mossey, 9) Luke Stapleford, 10) Scott Smart, DNF) Jason O’Halloran (HON)

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