G&S riders are in the points

The trio were in Scotland for the fifth round of the Pirelli Superstock 1000 and 600 championships where Kevin Keyes and TJ Toms rode to seventh and ninth place respectively in the Stock 600 class.

Milo Ward was 21st in the first Stock 1000 race but was forced to retire because of the horrendous weather conditions in the second encounter.

Ward had been working hard throughout the weekend trying to find a good set up on the big Kawasaki for the short and technical Scottish circuit and qualified for a ninth-row start to the first race on Saturday.

But starting from that far back it was always going to be a difficult task to get up into a points-scoring position.

Ward gave it his best shot and crossed the finish line in 21st place.

The weather took a turn for the worse on Sunday and it was raining heavily as the riders took their grid positions for race two.

Once the race got underway the spray caused havoc with his vision and he witnessed riders slipping off their machines in the horrendous conditions.

Again he gave it his best shot and made it through to 23rd place before the rain got even worse and he pulled into the pits for a premature end.

By the time the Stock 600 riders formed the grid the rain had eased and although it was still wet and conditions were tricky both G&S riders were able to bring their bikes home safely.

Toms lined up on row four for the start and got away well but he encountered a slight gear selection problem which caused him to drop down the order on the first lap.

But he persevered and began his comeback, making his way through to ninth position at the flag.

Keyes lined up on the fourth row beside his teammate for the start of the race and got a clean start to move up into ninth place on the opening lap.

He then began to pick off the opposition and by lap 19 of 22 was circulating in sixth position.

But on the final lap he was overhauled by Brent Harran and had to settle for seventh place at the flag.

Team manager Tom Fisher said: “What a weekend we had at Knockhill.

“For the first two days of free practice and qualifying it was lovely, the sun was out and it was hot.

“But then it changed and we had a horrendous thunderstorm later on Saturday which flooded the track.

“On Sunday it was raining again when the Stock 1000 riders went out and, after all his hard work on Saturday, Milo was forced to pull in as it was too dangerous for him to continue.

“Kevin and TJ did their best to bring home good results to the team in their race.

“It was the first time at Knockhill for the 636 and we had no wet practice, just a two-lap warm up so we used the wet settings from Brands and went into the race on a wing and a prayer.

“But the boys did very well and although no quite on the pace of the leaders they knuckled down and rode through to two good results.”

Ward will be back in action this weekend at Donington Park as the stock 1000s have a race at the World Superbike round on Sunday.

He will join Keyes and Toms at Snetterton for the next round on July 10-21.