Snetterton

Snetterton

The Friday morning’s weather looked promising for the day. Last night my mechanic had fitted another new piston and made sure the bike was right ready for the weekends racing. The first few sessions were going well until I had a bit of a spill and ended up wobbling into the pits on a had fared bike and was put straight back onto my 2nd bike. The rest of the day went well and I posted some good times in which again gave me confidence for Saturdays qualifying session. During the day I was having slight problems with the bike froffing up on the carb, which was making it rev whilst the throttle was closed and this was causing slight problems for me so we were working hard to figure this problem out, however every solution didn’t seem to work.

Saturday

The morning qualifying wasn’t going to plan and I had ended up on my own fighting against the treacherous back straight on my own with no slipstream. To make matters worse the bike wasn’t performing right and I ended up 8th. 2nd row of the grid but a lot of ground to make up if the bike wasn’t performing to its great standards it had been doing all year. Race 1 was quite interesting as early on 3 of the front lads went down, which put me up to 5th then I caught 4th and passed him. I was never pushing as 1st and 2nd were too far-gone and whoever passed me I could easily slipstream so all was looking good. I stayed in 3rd then 4th and 5th both crashed who I’d been battling with so my race was looking good. Then 2nd place crashed out which put me in 2nd and by the end of all this crashing I managed to not crash and hold onto my best result of the season! I knew though that the 2nd race wouldn’t be that easy. Because of the bike playing up in qualifying and now the race we decided to swap bikes as the best bikes main bearings had gone which was causing vibration and making the carb froff. Race 2 was hard from the first lap. The fronts 5 got away and were all in a big battle whilst behind them was a seven man battle for 6th place. I could go down the back straight in 10 then end up 6 by the end, it was anyone’s guess all race. At one point I was 12th and felt I was going backwards but on the last lap I was 10, then moved up a place to 9 then slipstreamed to 8th, went underneath 7th at the bomb hole, then slipstreamed 6th to line and I’d managed a 6th place. After being the highest point scorer on Saturday I was pleased with myself and was looking forward to Sunday.

Sunday

Because of being on the ‘slower’ bike for the rest of the weekend I knew I needed to finish races rather than push and end up falling so I was racing with my head for today. Race 1 was difficult as there was 4 of us again battling for 6th and every lap I couldn’t stick in the slip stream as the bikes performance just wasn’t the same as the other lads bikes I was up against. As the last lap started I passed two at once into the first corner then got past Andy Reid before the chicane down the back straight I was pretty confident now until I missed a gear and all three lads I’d just passed got past me which finished me off in 9th. Pretty gutting as I felt I could of finished 6th again but there was always another race left. Race 2 was a similar story to all weekend but this time the front 9 just left me! I don’t know how but I was struggling to even keep in a slipstream early on and with 9 lads being able to slip stream each other then me on my own, I was annoyed. I went round the majority of the race in 9th and ended up there. A great weekend as fast as my starts were concerned because on the first corner nearly every race I was 5 but then was being passed down the back straight but with my best bike letting me down resulted in me having a weekend away from the front lads.

With a re-build on the best bike before Moto GP I’m feeling confident as at WSBK I qualified 3rd so hopefully I can repeat the same performance.

Thanks to Andy for working hard on the bikes and the Pit board! Les Blake again for my racing career happen and all my sponsors for their continued support.