A RECORD crowd for a Scottish motorcycle event saw robin Appleyard shoot up the rankins after recording a strong second place in the Knockhill round of the 125cc British championship.

The good result at Knockhill, a tight twisty ttrack just outside fife, lifts Robin to secondplace in the overall championship standings. Chris Palmer is still holding on to the lead, but Appleyard is preparing for a strong finish to the season.

"Things are really falling into place now. The bike, and crew, are working extremely well and I am pleased with my performances so far. With five races left I will be at the top, or very close, if I can continue in the same form.

The Knockhill race itself was hardest so far this year. Although the circuit is quite short it is incredibly twisty. After the 30 laps I felt completely exhausted," he said.

Fifteen-year-old Leon Haslam, son of the famous 'Rocket' Ron Haslam won the race from Robin. Leon started out on pole position with Robin alongside him second on the grid.

A poor start from Robin saw Leon pull away and he remained in the clear for the rest of the race.

"It took me over six laps to get back into second place with a clear road ahead of me. By that time Leon was gone and was uncatchable. I had to concentrate on protecting my position from the chasing pack, and I was never able to shake them off throughout the race.

Recapturing and retaining second place was vitally important for Robin who raced home ahead of a chasingpack on the smae number of points.

The next round is at Mallory Park, Leicestershire on the weekend of August 15 - 16.

n Picture shows Robin Appleyard in action.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.