Ben Currie back on the podium at Knockhill
What an absolute crazy roller coaster of a weekend! Coming into Knockhill after a few weeks off we would like to think that we would have hit the ground running a little bit better, but the weather had other ideas for us, that's for sure. Free Practice 1 and 2 were soaking wet and we struggled in the wet conditions. It’s normally one of my favourite conditions as I see it as an opportunity to get really good results against riders that aren’t as confident as me. But I just didn't have the feeling. Even so the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team and myself worked really hard to turn it around and evaluate the data after Friday's practice and put a good bike out for Saturday morning.
We knew that rain, hail or shine we were going to be a lot better and a lot closer than what we were, so I was confident going into Saturday. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of an unforeseen bike gremlin, one of the most random little mechanicals that was just so bizarre that ruled us out of qualifying. Without being able to set a lap time 27th on the grid was the best we could do. We knew the Sprint race for Saturday afternoon was going to be a huge challenge. And the race was cut short because of weather delays, so time was against us in the race as well.
However the track dried out, the sun came out, and it was a 22-lap dash for me from 27th and I managed to pick off a ton of riders to finish sixth, fifth in the class. I was honestly so happy with that recovery. The Panigale V2 was amazing. We were on lap record pace pretty much, set the fastest lap, and, having missed qualifying that weekend, I still hadn't done a dry lap! To have that sort of pace and be that strong out the box is a real credit to the team, so a huge thanks to them for that.
I started the feature race on Sunday from pole position, which was going to make life a lot easier. However, conditions were different once gain and they were really, really tricky conditions in the wet. I knew it was going to be a challenge however the boys gave me a really good bike to fight for the win and I swapped places several times with Jack Kennedy for the lead.
Jack just got the better of me at the end of the race. Lapped riders got involved and that did it for me. But I was really happy to take second and not lose too many points. It could have been a disaster of a weekend, but we fought tooth and nail for every point. I hope when we take the championship at the end of the season, we will look back at Knockhill and be grateful for what we did.
There’s obviously still a long way to go yet, I’m nine points back in the championship. But I’m so confident that we can turn things around, and we’re right there in the fight. Thanks to everyone involved, all my mechanics, the team, everyone’s working so hard. And also, thanks to my sponsors for always supporting me. We keep rolling, and now onwards to Snetterton.