Quigley Storms To Podium Success
Luke Quigley took a well deserved second place finish at Round 7 of the British
Superstock Championship at Knockhill. Quigley made light work of the miserable
conditions aboard his Formwise/Astro Racing Suzuki to claim his first podium of
the season and set the fastest lap of the race in the process.
Quigley was on the pace all weekend and was no lower than third fastest in any
of the timed sessions. Friday's free practice session saw Quigley end up second
quickest after a red flag had split the session into two parts. Sam Warren's
huge crash lead to a delay of over an hour and forty minutes as marshals and
track staff cleared the debris before the final ten minutes of testing could be
completed.
First Qualifying showed the Formwise/Astro Racing squad were going to be right
in contention for honours as Quigley finished up third fastest. Having made some
adjustments from the morning, Quigley went over half a second quicker than his
practice time and was only two tenths of a second off pole position.
Quigley was again able to shave a further four tenths of a second off during the
second qualifying session. A best lap of 50.344s was only 0.15 seconds behind
pole sitter Glen Richards and was good enough to give Quigley third place and a
front row grid slot.
Sunday morning saw torrential rain hit the circuit, causing delays to the early
warm-ups. As the rain stopped just prior to the Superstock race, the sun and
wind allowed the track to dry significantly resulting in the race being declared
dry.
Starting from the front row meant Quigley could make his trademark rocket start
pay dividends, and sure enough he took the hole shot into turn one. As he held
onto the lead through the opening lap, Quigley began to settle into his rhythm.
Quigley lead on the road and by example as he posted consistently fast lap
times, given the conditions, and began to tow pole-sitter Glen Richards away
from the chasing pack.
On lap 7 Quigley relinquished the lead as Richards passed him on the brakes into
the hairpin. Following Richards round enabled Quigley to see where he was
stronger and best placed to make a pass. Having failed with a couple attempts,
Quigley had his hopes of victory dashed as the rain came in again and brought
the race to a premature end, just two laps shy of the scheduled duration. The
final result was taken at the last completed lap, placing Quigley 2nd, just half
a second behind.
Afterwards Quigley commented: "I am ecstatic to be back on the podium and not
only that, we were up there all weekend. I would like to say a huge thank-you to
the whole Formwise/Astro Racing team and to all of my sponsors for getting me
here."
"The bike felt good all weekend and I was quite comfortable in the lead. Glen
came past me about mid race and started to push on, but I was able to stick with
him. I was having a look at couple of places where I felt I was stronger but
could make anything stick. Then I started to see rain on my visor, so I was
signalling as we went over the line. I would definitely have had one more go for
the win if it hadn't been red-flagged but to be fair Glen was riding well."
The second place finish has move Quigley up to fifth in the overall championship
standings ahead of the next round at Snetterton in two weeks time.
Sam Farrington
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