British Superbike veteran Chris Walker shook off the free practice crash that resulted in a pair of broken heels to take to the British Superbike grid twice at Knockhill only for mechanical problems to thwart his hunt for points.

The Primo Bournemouth Kawasaki man managed to qualifying in 17th place and started both races but his ZX-10R gave up the ghost on both occasions. To add injury to injury, team-mate James Hiller was spat off the sister Ninja and broke his left heel in the first race.

"Anything that could have gone wrong this weekend has gone wrong and we've ended with five DNFs, three broken heels and a broken hand so to say it's been disappointing would be an understatement. The team worked so hard and it's just been one of those unfortunate meetings where nothing's gone right," said team boss Pete Extance.

"We had high hopes of Chris moving into the top six of the Championship this weekend and although he crashed, he gritted his teeth and was truly heroic in going out to race. The fact that he was thwarted by mechanical problems rather than being held back by his injuries makes it even more disappointing and frustrating for him."

"To then have James suffer an identical injury shows how unlucky we've been this weekend. He was on such a high after some great results at the TT but he's come here and had three crashes, eventually leaving on crutches. We're just all disappointed right now but a big thanks to the team for all their efforts and also to the medical staff for looking after Chris and James so well.

"I'd also like to thank Paul Bird's team for loaning us a swingarm for Chris' bike as without that, there's no way we would have been able to have the bike ready. We'll take stock of everything over the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, both riders will be strong enough to race at the next round."