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Les Shand had an extremely profitable two days of racing at Knockhill last weekend and he was able to claim no less than 4 wins and a new class lap record at the Fife venue. Having his first outing since his successful Isle of Man TT campaign in June, Les took all four wins in the Mini Twin class on board the Oak Tree Contracts Kawasaki, also claiming a new class record, and although this was the first round of the series he had competed in, he has already rocketed up to third in the Championship table.
With conditions good all weekend at the 1.287 mile circuit, Les dominated proceedings in the Mini Twin class to take maximum points and he backed this up with some strong rides in both the Superstock Championship and Supersport 600cc races. Riding the Leeds Parcel Company R1 Yamaha, his best result in the Superstock class was 4th place in Saturday’s second encounter and his best lap time of 50.8 seconds was just one tenth of a second outside the class lap record whilst he was only just over 2 seconds off the race win. This was backed up with solid results of 5th and 7th.
Just to ensure he had the maximum 12 starts from 12 races, Les was also out in force on the Bob Henderson Racing Suzuki in the Supersport 600cc class and his best result was again 4th place, this time achieved on Sunday. In the three other races, he took a brace of sevenths and a ninth, having fought his way through from 18th in the latter.
Speaking about the weekend, Les commented:
“It’s been a good two days for me and the team and the little Kawasaki was working brilliantly so that sets me up nicely for the Ulster GP next month, where I’ll be out again in the 400cc race. The lap times were good and to break the lap record was extremely pleasing. I hadn’t intended to contest the full championship but now I’m right in the hunt, I’ll probably keep going to see if we can get to the top of the table. The Superstock races were relatively straightforward without any dramas and I wasn’t far away in any of them. The lap times were very competitive and I’m happy with how the races went.”
“The 600 had had the engine freshened up after the TT but the engine still felt a bit flat; it was ok in qualifying but after that it went a bit downhill. Closer inspection revealed a small electrical problem and this was robbing the bike of a bit of power so we’ll look to get this fixed before the Ulster. I’m really looking forward to the final International road race of the season and I’ll be looking to continue my good run of results at Dundrod.”
The International Ulster Grand Prix Bike Week takes place from 11th-16th August, with Les in action on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Phil Wain
Freelance PR
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