Seven years after making his Bennetts British Superbike Championship debut, Danny Buchan can finally call himself a race winner as a masterful effort at Knockhill saw him break his duck in formidable style.
A BSB debutant back in 2012, Buchan has notched up a scatter-graph of BSB starts over the ensuing seasons but would still have completed 75 races before topping the podium on his 76th attempt.
Moreover, it was achieved in comprehensive fashion, Buchan never outside the top three all weekend despite the wildly varying wet and dry conditions, not least during the damp-to-dry first race which he’d complete a full six seconds up on the opposition.
Though his dreams of the double he was seemingly on course for was scuppered by a fall from the lead, Buchan was thrilled to not only firmly establish himself amongst BSB’s elite but to do so with fellow first-time winners FS-3 Racing Kawasaki.
Indeed, though Buchan’s Superbike form had fluctuated so much during the initial years he’s chose to return to Superstock 1000 to win a second title, he has found his rhythm with the privateer FS-3 team, itself a relative newcomer to the series debuting in 2016.
"It’s not sunk in yet and I’m pretty overwhelmed by it, it was such a long race. At the beginning of the race I actually hit Taz, I hit his exhaust going down the straight. It was a good race and I knew I could do a good job, mid race onwards I settled into a rhythm and brought the bike home and took my first win.
"Credit to the FS3 team for all their hard work that they have put in, to pick up my first win and the team’s first BSB win, it has been a long time coming. I’ve been trying and trying it’s been a stressful three years for everyone around me. Thanks to all my family and friends who have always supported me. Gutted to crash out of P1 in race 2, was feeling so good.”
Moreover, victory goes a long way to strengthening Buchan’s Title Showdown aspirations. He is currently fifth overall, a sizeable 43 points clear of seventh place – and injured – Christian Iddon in seventh.
