Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill regained the lead in the overall standings after a double podium finish at the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Knockhill whilst Noriyuki Haga scored a sixth place on his first visit to the Fife circuit.

In the opening race of the weekend Hill came out fighting and was lying third on the opening lap before making a determined move on Michael Laverty to claim second place before the trio again went head-to-head in race two, with the defending champion scoring a third place. Haga was able to score a solid sixth place in the opening race but whilst in contention for fifth in race two he crashed out at Scotsman unhurt.

Hill said:

“We can’t complain about the results this weekend; two podium finishes is good although as a racer you always want to win. We have been consistent and I knew the races would be tough as you can never underestimate anybody as there are so many riders capable of winning. I rode hard in the first race but so was Shakey and Michael and it was like an elastic band; where one of us was quicker in one section the other was faster somewhere else. It was a bit of a game of cat and mouse and we knew that the Swan Yamaha had the pace to be up there at the front, there were a couple of times that I thought about having a bit of a lunge and I was tempted but at the same time I didn’t want us to all end up crashing. We were all pushing really hard again in race two as we all know that we need the podium finishes so we have the credits for the Showdown. I wasn’t as comfortable in race two but we kept trying and two podiums was better than two crashes - we are even hungrier for Oulton Park now!”

Haga said:

“In race one I was happy with the result for my first time here, but during the race I wasn’t comfortable to run at the pace that we needed to be at the front. We made a mistake with the direction we went with the setting and we wanted to improve in race two. The second race I had a better feeling but I still couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to and then I lost the front and crashed. We didn’t have a lot of time to make big setting changes this weekend but my Swan Yamaha crew worked very hard and I need to thank them and also say sorry for the crash. I am ninth in the standings and I will do everything I can to jump to fifth or sixth which we need for the Showdown. I look forward to Oulton Park and I think we can have another good result there.”

Team Owner Shaun Muir concluded:

“It was another solid weekend from Tommy and two podium finishes was a fantastic result; it is great for the team to be back at the top of the standings. It was a shame for Noriyuki to have crashed out, especially as he had made some improvements for race two and was moving up the order. He will be back at Oulton Park though and will be aiming for that top six.”

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