Although struggled with an injured collarbone Jessopp reached 2nd & 3rd in the Superbike Cup
Going to Oulton Park I was still not fit due to re injuring my shoulder at boxing training a week before but this was not going to get me down as I love Oulton and was looking to regain the form I had prior to my crash at Donington Park in late May.
Friday was a pretty much dry and I was concentrating on getting up to pace straight away from the first session but a small crash at Druids did not make it easy for myself and was starting to really hurt my shoulder. I finished up 26th overall and 7th privateer.
Saturday was another day where we had mixed conditions and this looked like this was going to be how it was for the remainder of the weekend. The final free practise was wet and I went out to test our new wet map we have on the bike to try and make it easier to ride in the rain because we do not have traction control like most of the grid. I ended up 14th overall and 2nd privateer which I was happy with because I did not go out for the last 20 minutes. Next was qualifying and it was dry and for the 50 minute session I was pushing as hard as I could on a soft race tyre to get a time of 1.39.373 whish would put me 20th on the grid and 3rd overall. I was quite happy with this due to the small problems we had been having in the previous dry sessions.
Race day saw us having morning warm-up very close to the first race which ment there was no time for mistakes. I had an average start to the race and ended up in a battle with championship rival Tom Tunstall in which i managed to put a second gap on him and keep ahead of him to the finish where I ended up 16th overall and 2nd in the cup which I was happy with because I was in a fair bit of pain during the race especially on the left handers.
Race 2 was not such a great start as before and saw me drop back a few places and have to make them back up during the race and when Watanabe came past I tried to hang on to him for as long as possible dragging me up through the order to finish 20th and 3rd. I was quite happy coming away with a 16h overall, 2nd and 3rd in the cup as i really was struggling which my collar bone.
Next round is Knockhill in sunny Scotland where I have had good results before and am really looking forward to it so I will hopefully see you all there.
PTJ #40
