Tough Night for Knighter in Barcelona

Date: February 13, 2014

Tough Night for Knighter in Barcelona

Factory Sherco rider David Knight endured a tough night at Round 5 of the FIM Superenduro World Championship, held at the Palau St Jordi stadium in Barcelona. Claiming a forth overall, only 1 point from third place, Knighter rode hard all evening only to have some bad luck that kept him off the podium.

Swapping from his usual 300 four-stroke to a 300 two-stroke bike for the day, Knighter started well topping the second practice session on the very slippery track and making the Superpole, where the six fastest riders do a one lap sprint to decide their start position. With the start being half way around the lap and each rider therefore having to complete a sighting lap, David misjudged the two and a half laps needed to complete 1 fast flying lap and cruised around, missing his hot lap and therefore posting a very slow time. This mistake gave David sixth place at the gate, and more importantly he missed out on some valuable championship points.

Very disappointed, David was ready to race and in a very hungry mood.

Race 1, and Knighter made a great start rounding lap 1 in second place only to make a mistake and drop back to third. Pushing hard David regained second with a great move in the sand pit only to lose out again in the rock section. This error gave David third position, 3 seconds behind the winner and championship rival Blazusiak.

Race 2 with it’s reverse grid, and Knighter got an ok start working his way up through the pack to third where he finally finished this consistency placed David second overall with one race left.

Race 3, and being a bit keen at the start, David boiled his clutch and spun up on the start line just before the gate dropped giving him a terrible start. He then had to fight his way through the pack on the now, very one-lined and slick track. Getting up to third, Knighter then made a small mistake in the rocks on the penultimate lap dropping him to fifth, to end the day forth overall, just 1 point from third.

David Knight:

A tough night really, but it wasn’t as bad as the result looks. Sure I’m disappointed to let Taddy pull a big points gap but I didn’t lose many to Jonny who is third in the championship and quite a long way back so it’s not all bad. I hadn’t felt too good for a few days leading up to the race and decided to gamble a little and ride my two-stroke which might seem a bit odd to many, but the thing is I was 18 points back from Taddy, which wasn’t impossible to get back but definitely wouldn’t be easy.

I was 43 points ahead of Jonny in 3rd, so I thought I’d try something different, maybe it’ll pay off, maybe it won’t, but I’ve got room to take a risk. In all honesty, the Superpole thing wound me up and they confuse things a lot more than is needed, especially trying to understand them speaking in broken English, but I got it wrong and it cost me some points.

I think it gave me some fight in race one as I felt tired and low on energy but was a little disappointed with 3rd as I was close to winning but a few little mistakes mid race cost me. Again in race 2 a similar story, a small mistake with a backmarker cost me a shot at second but I was happy enough with the way I rode. Race 3 I burned the clutch on the start line and got a really bad start and with the track being so slippery, it was tough to get past people. I got to third at one point but unfortunately made another mistake and dropped to fifth, despite giving it all I had.

I really just ran out of energy and couldn’t do much about it, which I know was caused by having the flu before the race, but these things happen and it’s all part of it I guess. I’m really looking forward to France, I have new parts to test this week in the four-stroke which should be really good and I can finally ride my bike and train loads instead of travelling which I have been doing flat out over the past month. I aim to end the indoors on a high and the championship is still not finished and anything can happen…

Cheers,

Knighter