IN
THE
WIND
P32
KIYONARI SCORES HISTORIC
WIN FOR BMW
Three-time British Superbike
Champion Ryuichi Kiyonari made
history on Sunday at Knock-
hill, scoring BMW's first-ever win
in the British Superbike Series.
The victory also marked the first
win of the season for the Build-
base BMW team and ended the
Japanese rider's win drought in
the series - his last win coming in
2011 before departing the series
for a year (2012) to race the FIM
Asia Road Racing Champion-
ship. Rounding out the podium
was Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki's
Shane Byrne and his teammate
Stuart Easton.
A back-on-form Kiyonari made
a good effort to pull off the dou-
ble, but Byrne, the other three-
time British Superbike champ,
wasn't going to have it and race
two saw a fierce battle between
the pair. Byrne led early with Ki-
yonari right behind him. Then the
roles were reversed with Byrne
stalking Kiyonari, allowing Byrne
to capitalize on a Kiyonari mis-
take to take the lead. Kiyonari
didn't give up the fight, but in the
end he fell short by .176 of a sec-
ond.
Lloyds British GBmoto Racing
Kawasaki's Chris Walker held
off Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh
Brookes to take third in spite of
a broken finger. American John
Hopkins finished ninth and 11th
in race one and two, respec-
tively.
Byrne still leads the champi-
onship by a healthy margin of 79
points over Brookes, 190- 111.
Lloyds British GBmoto Racing
Kawasaki's James Ellison is third
with 108 points.
Ryuichi Kiyonari scored BMW's first
win in the British Superbike Series
and ended his own personal winless
drought in the process.
PHOTOGRAPHY
COURTESY
OF
BSB
JIMMY PLAIN PASSES
J
immy Plain, West Coast Ama-
teur Champion of 1961, died
in his sleep from heart and lung
complications early Wednesday
morning, June 25, at his home in
San Ramon, California, accord-
ing to his friend Steve Gregory.
Plain was 71.
Plain, who was originally from
Richmond, California, was one of
the leading amateur racers of the
early 1960s. Along the way he
won amateur nationals, including
the 1961 Heidelberg (Pennsylva-
nia) Half-Mile and Sacramento
Mile. Plain rode with backing at
various times from Dick Mann,
Harold Murrell and the Emmick
family of Sacramento. He was
West Coast high-point rider in
1961.
Unfortunately Plain's racing
career was cut short when he
suffered a bad head injury in his