Two fourth place finishes made Ben Wilson’s long trip north of the border to Knockhill for round five of the Dickies British Supersport Championship a worthwhile one.
Kirton racer Wilson recorded a fourth place in the delayed sprint race at the Scottish circuit and was fourth again in the feature race later in the day on Sunday.
Although the podium still eludes Wilson this season, his solid results move him up to fourth place in the overall championship on 93 points – which is no mean feat for a rider who has taken three years or more away from racing to recover from his severe leg injury.
In glorious sunshine on Saturday morning Wilson completed his qualifying in 11th place in the mixed grid of Supersport and GP2 riders, (seventh in his class) and was anticipating a good race on Saturday afternoon.
However, a heavy thunderstorm put paid to any race action as the track was flooded in parts and the race was postponed to Sunday morning.
With rain still falling and the track still wet, Wilson lined up for the start of the Sprint race on Sunday.
He got away to a good start and moved up into ninth place overall (seventh in class) on the opening lap.
One lap later he passed Richard Kerr to move up to seventh overall (sixth in class) and continued to pull clear of the riders behind him.
With the leaders out of reach Wilson rode a lonely race through the remainder of the laps.
But, in a twist of fate, Sam Munro and Alastair Seeley crashed together on lap 13 which promoted Wilson to fifth place overall and fourth in the Supersport class.
The track had dried for the start of the Feature race and Wilson got away to one of his trademark quick starts from the third row.
He was up into fifth position on the first lap and entered into a battle for position with roads specialist Lee Johnston, who finally got the better of him on lap eight.
Wilson was running sixth in the Supersport category, but some of the GP2 bikes had demoted him down to ninth overall on lap 12.
When Johnston encountered a problem with his bike and pulled in to retire, the Kirton speedster was promoted to fifth place but then Kerr passed him which put him back to sixth once again.
With six laps remaining Wilson passed Kerr to regain his fifth place. However, when Rory Skinner pulled out of third place with a bike problem Wilson moved up to fourth and remained in that position to the chequered flag.
The next round is at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend of July 19/21.
Riders standings (after round five, Knockhill): 1st Jack Kennedy 195pts; 2nd Alastair Seeley 191pts; 3rd Brad Jones 172pts; 4th Ben Wilson 93pts; 5th Harry Truelove 91pts.
