With only 2 rounds to go we were at the fast and wide circuit of Silverstone
With only 2 rounds to go we were at the fast and wide circuit of Silverstone which I really enjoy racing at. The first day we concentrated on getting up to speed as fast as possible ensuring gearing and base set up was as good as possible. I finished the day 19th overall and 2nd privateer.
Saturday was to be another sunny warm day like friday and we were already getting to a good bike set up but was lacking rear grip in the final few turns. I tried all the different tyres available but was still not able to get rid of the problem for qualifying. The plan for the afternoon was as normal in that I wanted to make the second part of qualifying. I managed to do this but a sensor failed on the bike at the end of the first part of the session so I was forced to use the bike I had not ridden all weekend in the second part in which I did not post a faster time, putting me 20th on the grid and 2nd privateer on a time of 1.28.513. Myself and the team were happy with this and really looking forward to the race.
Race day was once again sunny from the start and it was looking like this was going to be the first weekend of the year where I did not use a wet tyre all weekend!!!!! In the first race I did not have a great start and as usual I had to overtake some slower riders on the first lap if I was going to get away with the main group to finish in the points. Early in the race Burns made a pass on me and pulled a gap of about 1.5 seconds and maintained this through the race and I just couldn’t seem to close the gap and on the last lap Hickman came past me as he had been behind me the whole race. After the second race it was found out to be that Mason on the Quay Honda had been using illegal engine parts and was disqualified from both races so this put me 15th overall and 2nd privateer. I was really happy with scoring another point in the main championship.
Race 2 saw me have an even worse start than the first and putting on the power too early out of the first turn I had a big slide and was out of the seat losing many places. I was soon pushing my way through the field though. The temperature was a bit cooler, for this race, so I went with a medium race tyre as apposed to the soft in race 1 which really didn’t work. Once I got passed the riders I lost out. I was watching my pit board the whole race and seemed to maintain my place easy enough but was just not able to close in the rider ahead of me. I finished 2nd again and 17th overall.
This was a good weekend for myself and felt I did the best I could have done on my bike as I was really struggling with no traction control on the last few turns. I can not believe it but we only have one more round left which is at the Brands Indy circuit.
See you there, PTJ #40
