Croft a struggle … now its onto Silverstone to keep my 2nd position in championship
In my past seasons at the bumpy circuit of Croft I had never had a decent result and was looking to turn that around this year because I do enjoy riding the circuit. As per usual the weather was not going to be good so what dry times we had on track it was important to get some fast laps in to try and get some set up for race day. The first session was dry and I rode the bike I have not ridden since Mallory Park because we were planning to ride it due to the other bike having high mileage. After a few changes I finished the session 22nd overall and 4th privateer on a time of 1.24.727. The next session of the day saw spitting rain so I only ended up doing a handful of laps.
Going into qualifying I was still not happy with the set up of the bike but could not manage to resolve the situation and with the new format of qualifying did not post a time quick enough to see me in the second part and ended up 24th overall and 6th privateer on a time of 1.24.191. Looking ahead to race day I knew I had a lot of work to do and some changes needed to be made.
With changes made ready for the first race I was not really sure how it was going to be but I was soon to find out. The track temperature was 20 degrees so I went with a soft tyre. I had a good start and made a few places up and ended up in a race long battle with Tunstall and Etheridge. The grip was really not good on the rear and I could see the other riders were not having the same problem so I needed to hang in with them and try and make a move on the closings laps, which I did and beat them to finish 21st and 4th. We made a mistake with the tyre and the set up was still not as good as it usually is so we made even more changes for the next race.
In race 2 I also had a good start and started to go with the guys in front which were Johnson and Martin but on lap 7 I made a big mistake at the entry to Tower bend and ran off the circuit and by the time I was back on track I was a long way behind and there was no way I was going to make it back up but I tried. I finished a disappointing 20th and 5th.
So the dismal curse over myself at Croft continues for another year but with that behind we can move on to the next round at Silverstone.
See you soon, PTJ #40.
