Alastair Seeley gave his British Supersport Championship hopes a boost with back-to-back podium finishes this weekend at Knockhill.
After taking a comfortable second in Saturday's first race ahead of points leader Ben Wilson, the Relentless Suzuki rider pushed Wilson all the way in Sunday's second race, eventually losing out by just 0.222s.
Seeley is now in a safe second place in the championship, trailing Wilson by 59 points, and although he was beaten to victory on Sunday, maintains that the championship is very much alive as the season approaches the halfway stage.
“Ben rode hard and tried to pull the pin after just a few laps, but my pace has been pretty consistent on the GSX-R600 so I was confident of pegging him back. I was catching him all the time but I could also see about five back markers in front of us. I knew I needed to be on his bumper and I closed right up; then when he got held up I got through to take the lead. He’s so aggressive and got back in front, but when he made a mistake into the last corner on the last lap I wasn’t quite close enough to capitalise. It’s solid points again and it only takes a DNF over the next lot of races from him and I’m right back in it. I’ll go home now and make a game-plan for the next round but I’m happy enough.”
Team manager Philip Neill praised Seeley's skill in tricky conditions after a brief rain shower made life difficult in race two, and expects a number of upcoming improvements to take the GSX-R600 closer to the pacesetting Kawasaki.
“It was great to see Alastair keep his consistent run going, especially as it was a difficult weekend weather-wise for everyone. He has proved wet or dry that he has the pace and his lap times were exceptional today, which are testament to the quality of rider/ bike combination on the GSX-R600. It’s still early days for the new bike. We are not half-way through the season yet and will be expecting more updates in the coming weeks, so with a bit of hard work I’m confident we will see more Alastair Seeley wins this season.”
