Top eight spots for Lewis Smart at Knockhill

​Riding in the HEL British Junior Supersport class, Smart took two top eight finishes in what was his first ever experience of the track.

The practice sessions saw Smart have the opportunity to learn the circuit, set up his suspension and find out which gearing to use, ultimately going tenth fastest overall.

Qualifying was chaotic, with three red flags in 20 minutes hindering all riders.

After the second red flag, there was only around four minutes left of the session and Smart was in 15th place, but in his attempts to push on and finish his second flying lap of the closing spell, he took turn five a little too quickly and ran into the gravel, eventually colliding with a barrier but with minimal damage having managed to hold the bike up on the gravel.

Race one saw Smart not get the best of starts, pulling a small wheelie off the line, but throughout the race he worked his way forward through the pack and finished in eighth place.

With the lap time he set in the race, it put him ninth on the grid for race two.

This time he got a much better start and was right in the mix of the lead group, having some close battles, but as they came round to start lap eight the safety car flags were out. This meant the group he was in bunched up which worked in his favour.

When the safety car went in there were six laps to go and as Smart was in seventh at this point, it was so close in the group and hard to make a move on anyone as all so similar in speed, but on the penultimate lap he managed to make up two places to move in to fifth.

On the last lap coming over turn five he made a little mistake which didn’t give him the chance to pull a move at the last corner but he was still very happy with his performance.

Smart said: “Overall it was a very good weekend for me, improving every time I went out on track and securing another two top ten finishes.

“A massive thank you to all my sponsors who are helping me out throughout the season as without them this wouldn't be possible!”