Smiling Westmoreland pleased with Knockhill progress

A smiling James Westmoreland says that he’s happy with his progress at Knockhill, taking his two best finishes of the year after a major restructuring within his side of the JG Speedfit Kawasaki garage after Snetterton.

“Darren, my chief mechanic, has stepped up to be my crew chief, and it’s working brilliantly. I feel like I’ve gelled with them now, and we can go forwards positively now.

“When you’ve come from where I’ve been – which was quite a low place – you can’t run at the front right away. You have to have stepping stones in place, and that’s what we did at Knockhill – built something we can step on to go forwards.”

More importantly for the former Showdown contender, however, are the causes of his increased speed – with a significantly different in demeanour Westmoreland appearing at the Scottish track

“The changes have been a little bit of everything; the atmosphere, a few technical people, working more closely with my suspension and our electronics engineer. It’s made me happier, I feel like there’s less pressure, and I’m enjoying riding the bike again.

“The results weren’t brilliant, but it was a solid weekend. An eighth and a ninth isn’t so bad, and we qualified thirteenth, which means I went forwards not back in both races. We were able to pass, and the biggest thing is I’m happy on the bike again; I’m smiling!”