Fresh from their Isle of Man TT Races campaign, SMT Racing’s successful 2013 season continued at Knockhill at the weekend with Tim and Tristan Reeves winning both of the British F1 Sidecar Championship races to extend their title lead and Adam Jenkinson finishing fourth in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000cc Championship to do similar.
Heavy rain saw Saturday’s Sidecar race postponed due to large amounts of standing water around the 1.27-mile circuit but conditions were far more favourable on Sunday morning and a perfect start saw Tim and Tristan grab the holeshot from Sean Hegarty/Calum Lawson. The Kent duo promptly pulled away from the rest of the field and for much of the race there was only half a second between them. However, Tim was just biding his time and towards the end of the 10-lap race, he edged clear to run out victor by 2.126s.
It was a similar story in the second, longer race later in the day where the siblings again took the lead at the first corner. Holding a slender advantage over the same Hegarty/Lawson combination in the early stages, they upped the pace in the second half of the race and, aided by a fastest lap of 52.076s, they ran out comfortable winners by three and a half seconds to complete their third double of the season and maintain their 100% winning record from the six races contested.
For Knutsford’s Jenkinson, his qualifying sessions were held in both wet and dry conditions and on the combined times he lined up in fourth and on the second row of the grid. With Tristan Palmer leading the race from start to finish, all eyes fell on the battle for second and Adam was involved from the outset. Battling with Joe Burns, Hudson Kennaugh and Filip Backlund, Adam held second place in the early stages but found himself back in fourth when the race was red flagged at two thirds race distance. With Burns claiming second, it means his title lead has been cut to 14 points but he still leads the way on 91 points to Burns’ 77.
Speaking later, team owner Robin Croft said; “After our TT exploits, it was good to see Tim bounce back from his second race retirement there with a double victory this weekend. It was business as usual for him and Tristan and a double victory was the perfect tonic and extended their title lead so we’re delighted with how the season’s going.”
“Adam did as well as expected and with quite a few of the other riders having previously tested at Knockhill we were up against it a bit and ultimately paid the price. Having said that, fourth certainly isn’t the end of the world and it’s another good, solid result that keeps Adam in the championship lead. Had the red flag not come out we may have sneaked onto the podium but we’ll never know so we’ll come back fighting on all cylinders at Snetterton.”
The next round sees both the Reeves brothers and Adam back in action with the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk hosting the meeting on July 5-7.
Photo - Glynne Lewis
