Jack Kennedy takes over British Supersport title lead from Alastair Seeley after Knockhill double

Jack Kennedy has taken over the lead of the Dickies British Supersport Championship following a double success at Knockhill in Scotland.
Jack Kennedy celebrates his victory in the British Supersport Sprint race at Knockhill with runner-up Brad Jones and Lee Johnston (right).Jack Kennedy celebrates his victory in the British Supersport Sprint race at Knockhill with runner-up Brad Jones and Lee Johnston (right).
Jack Kennedy celebrates his victory in the British Supersport Sprint race at Knockhill with runner-up Brad Jones and Lee Johnston (right).

Kennedy, the reigning champion, trailed Carrick’s Alastair Seeley by 30 points coming into the fifth round of the series, but now holds a slender lead of four points over his fierce rival.

In wet conditions in the Sprint race, which was postponed from Saturday, Kennedy held off his Integro Yamaha team-mate Brad Jones to seal the win by 0.778s.

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The leading duo had pulled clear of the rest and former champion Seeley was battling for the podium when he was taken out by Sam Munro.

Isle of Man TT Supersport race winner Lee Johnston came through to take the final spot on the podium on his Ashcourt Racing Yamaha.

Kennedy, who was forced out of both races at Donington Park after sustaining a broken scaphoid, also won the Feature race later in the day, which was held in completely dry conditions.

Once again he became embroiled in a battle with team-mate Jones at the front for much of the race.

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The decisive moment arrived when they encountered slower riders, with Kennedy managing to get past quickly. He went on to complete his double by 2.4 seconds from Jones, with Kyle Ryde (Kovara projects by RS Racing) almost 13 seconds further back.

Seeley took third in the Supersport class, nearly 26 seconds behind race winner Kennedy.

Fermanagh man Johnston failed to finish the race on his Yamaha.

A delighted Kennedy said: “I’m really happy with the win especially as we got a dry race, but the wind made it difficult whilst Brad kept me honest throughout.

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“I was putting in consistent laps, pretty much bang on the lap record but my board kept saying ‘+0’ so fair play to him. I got a bit of a gap at the end when we ran into the backmarkers but I’m delighted to have taken two wins and we’ve turned the Championship around so I couldn’t be happier.”