Martin Jessopp

Since Oulton Park I had really been looking forward to Knockhill as I enjoy the flow of the circuit and have had some good results there in the past years. I was finally back to 100% fit and ready to do battle and try and get to the top step of the podium. 
 
Friday was dry and it was important to get some good laps in because we knew it was going to be raining all day saturday. The first time I pitted of the day I said to my crew I had almost forgotten how fast these bikes are as I nearly came off the back as soon as I applied the power in first gear leaving the pit lane!!! I spent the day trying get consistent fast laps but was having problems at the last corner and losing 0.4 of a second there which was the difference between me finishing 16th instead of 22nd.
 
As predicted saturday was wet an raining all day which ment the grid was going to be determined on wet weather riding which is not usually a problem for me but this was not so on this day. The morning session was our last practise of the weekend and I was having some issues with traction exiting the last corner on the wet surface, we made some changes to the end of the session in hope to get it sorted ready for qualifying. Unfortunately we did not manage to get the bike any better and was still losing 0.4 of a second. I qualified a dismal 24th overall and 6th privateer.
 
Race 1 saw a wet track drying fast so everybody was using slick tyres but our lap times were down due to it still being quite damp. I had a poor start and had a few guys come past me which was not good as it took me nearly 10 laps to get past them and then I ended up in a race long battle with privateer rival Chris Burns in which we were overtaking each other on every lap but I made a first corner move on him on the last lap and made it stick to the finish. I was really happy with this result because I scored a couple more points in the main championship and finished 2nd in the cup taking some points out of the injured rider John Laverty.
 
Race 2 was a shortened race with a wet track and a small drying line. I chose to go on a intermediate rear and a wet front which ended up not to be a good choice as the track was bone dry towards the end. The team did not manage to get the wheels changed in time due to trouble with a spacer so I had to start from the back of the grid. The conditions were not good for my wet front tyre and the bike was so unstable but I got past 8 riders and in a battle with another cup rival Gary Mason. As like in the first race with Burns I overtook Mason into the first corner and made it stick to the finish line ending up 16th overall and another 2nd place in the privateer cup. I was happy with these results but still not on the top step of the cup podium.
 
We head up North again next round to my favourite circuit Cadwell Park so I hope to see you all there.
 
Cheers,
 
PTJ #40.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 10:33 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.