Round six – 3/4/5 July Knockhill ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Leon Camier, the leader of the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli, is expecting a fight on his hands with local favourite Stuart Easton in the sixth round at Knockhill. Riding the Airwaves Yamaha, Camier has won all but two of the races so far, and he powered into the short, tight Fife circuit in confident mood after his sixth place as a ‘wild-card’ rider in last Sunday’s world series race. Camier packed in 25 laps, the best of which came in 49.492secs, just enough to head off the determined challenges of Easton who closed his Hydrex Honda to within 0.078secs during the morning session, but, rain in the afternoon ended the hopes of the Flying Scot of improving his time. “We’ve been working away with the suspension and settings,” explained Easton, adding “we hard planned work with our tyres in the second session. “I like to think that I can do well here, and to win here for the first time in Superbikes would be the icing on the cake,” said the former Supersport title winner who is still chasing maiden victory in the top flight, having come close twice already this season. “There is not much in it in terms of lap times now, but it will get closer, and like the last round at Snetterton, this will be a big fight,” added Easton who goes into the races 22 points adrift of James Ellison who ran his Airwaves Yamaha fifth fastest overall, a third of a second down. Glen Richards nosed his HM Plant Honda into third place on the leaderboard with a fast lap of 49.668secs early on in the second session before the rains intensified to be running a tenth up on his team-mate Josh Brookes, who after a run of three consecutive third placings, is aiming for better things on his first visit to this circuit. Simon Andrews maintained his recent run of good form by posting sixth best time, 49.830secs, aboard the MSS Colchester Kawasaki, running marginally faster than four times former runner-up in the series Chris Walker riding the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha. Ian Lowry put in a time of 50.075secs on the Relentless Suzuki to be eighth best from John Laverty riding the Buildbase Kawasaki while Michael Rutter, despite a couple of tumbles, completed the top ten on the Worx Crescent Suzuki. Gary Mason, the runaway leader of the Mirror.co.uk Cup the race within a race for Independent team and riders led the times in that class with a lap in 50.396secs on the Quay Garage Honda. Tommy Bridewell, riding the Team NB Suzuki, was 0.463secs, down on him, with Tom Tunstall third in class on the Hardinge Doodson Honda. Top ten free practice times: L Camier, Airwaves Yamaha, 49.492secs, 92.47mph S Easton, Hydrex Honda, 49.570s G Richards, HM Plant Honda, 49.668s J Brookes, HM Plant Honda, 49.799s J Ellison, Airwaves Yamaha 49.811s S Andrews, MSS Colchester Kawasaki 49.830s C Walker, Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, 49.858s I Lowry, Relentless Suzuki, 50.075s J Laverty, Buildbase Kawasaki, 50.120s M Rutter, Worx Crescent Suzuki, 50.125s More, from a press release issued by Airwaves Yamaha: AIRWAVES YAMAHA TOP KNOCKHILL British Superbike Championship leader Leon Camier finished the opening day of Round 6 fastest. James Ellison who is second in the Championship, finished 3rd in First Practice and 6th fastest overall. Leon topped the timesheets early in First Practice. He was briefly pushed down to 2nd but continued to improve on his times. Leon eventually set the fastest time of the session, 49.492s on lap 17 of 25. James also saw a steady improvement on his times throughout first practice. He secured 3rd with 49.811s in the final 2 minutes of the session. The Airwaves Yamaha team was confident of reducing their times in second practice. Taking a couple of laps to get back up to speed, Leon was lying in 4th and James 8th when rain began to fall. Both James and Leon decided to sit-out the remainder of the session and so did not improve on their earlier times. Leon’s best lap from First Practice remained the fastest of the day. After Second Practice James commented, “It’s good to be back on track. The first session was really positive. Sector 1 is looking good, and I’m the strongest in the final Sector. I’ve got a few tenths to find in the middle where I’m losing most of my time in just one corner. We had some ideas of what to try in the second session. I had hoped to work through quite a bit on the Airwaves Yamaha so it’s frustrating for it to be wet. But we’ve made a good start to the weekend so I’m happy.” Frustrated not to have more dry time on track, Leon said, “I had hoped for some good weather this weekend! But there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re all in the same boat. This morning went well. We got a lot of positives out of the session. It’s always good to finish top but there’s more to come out of the Airwaves Yamaha. Hopefully we’ll get some dry track time tomorrow before qualifying.”