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The Real Cycle People
44 George Street, Perth

SCOTTISH SETBACK

BELOW PAR performances at the mid-season Knockhill round of the British 125GP Championship may cost Team KRP's young guns the chance to challenge for the title fears team boss Mark Keen.

Despite three of his youngsters finishing well inside in the top ten, Keen felt all his riders under-achieved at the tight and twisty Fife track and he was doubly disappointed see championship rivals Kev Coghlan and Luke Jones finish on the top two steps of the podium to extend their lead in the series standings.

Never in touch with the leading group and losing half a second to them on every lap, Robbie Stewart finished fifth at his home round, just ahead of team-mate Anthony Rogers. Tom Hayward was eighth and former double winner Nikki Coates was strangely out of sorts on the damp track and scored only two points in fourteenth position.

Keen said: "The lads are capable of filling the top four places. The result was just not good enough and they know it. There are now only six rounds left in the championship and we are running out of opportunities to turn things around."

Stewart was knocked off by another rider during first qualifying and aggravated the shoulder injury sustained at Thruxton earlier in the season and Coates, who took a tumble in morning warm up, never came to terms with the difficult damp conditions.

"Perhaps Robbie was slightly detuned knowing he was carrying the injury," said Keen, "And it was Nikki's worst result for a year - he wasn't at all comfortable in the conditions and he was absolutely mortified. Anthony, on the other hand, rode better than his result and perhaps got held up by Robbie a little bit."

Tom Hayward was unlucky to lose seventh position on the last lap, being baulked by back markers just after being passed by Lee Costello. "Tom was in the top eight in all the sessions and was sometimes popping up at the front. Now he's got over his injuries and the chattering problems seem to be a thing of the past we can concentrate on building the bike up for him and hopefully he can continue to improve."

The next round of the series is at Oulton Park in Cheshire on July 13 and Keen has been working hard on the bikes in an effort to give his riders the best possible chance of gaining good results at the picturesque Cheshire circuit.

"Oulton Park has been a good track for us in the past and the lads all enjoy racing there," said Keen. "None of them are stunning qualifiers but if they're on the first two rows it should be enough to be up there battling and they need to be beating Jonesy and Coghlan to stay in the hunt for the championship. But as the races go by it's getting harder and harder and time might already be running out."

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