Brands Hatch Round 2

Back to Brands Indy for round 2 of the championship determined to show what we are capable of, we have some good settings on the bike and luckily the test day the day before was wet so all the other guys who had done it didn’t have as much of a head start!

1st Qualifying was still damp after the rain over night and we were 3rd session out, as normal round the Indy circuit its hard to get some free air to post a good time and this was no exception – I managed some ok laps and ended the session in 5th place which were more than happy with.

2nd Qual was now dry and I was determined to hold onto the 2nd row start and again tried hard to get some free air – we went quicker than the first session and managed to hold 5th place with a 49.2 only half a second from the pole sitter.

I really wanted to make the grid position pay off and I got a good start in the lead pack and managed to hold on fighting in the battle for 2nd to 6th – Pete Baker had made an exit at the front and didn’t look like he was coming back!!, unfortunately I was carrying an injury from a motox incident 2 weekends before and hadn’t been able to train like normal – for the first time in a long while I got some arm pump towards the end of the race and slipped back to 5th on the finish – still a good result with under a second separating 2nd to 5th over the line – excellent fun. I thought if I rode well on the Sunday a podium was not impossible.

Sunday morning and all good again – a bit colder but still very nice, I got a terrible start in the first race and was down to 10th – aarrgghhh – I had picked off a few place when the red flag came out and I had another chance. This time I was off the start like a scolded rabbit but Pete Baker on pole did not get such a good start and balked me into paddock and cost me a few places – he then got hit by another rider and was pushed wide coming back on track I had to take avoiding action and nearly went down myself – anyway by now im back in 10th again! ARSE, the guys in front where holding me up and I was looking for a way round when Max Hunt in front hit another bike and went down – I had no where to go and ran over his bike somehow staying on only to see the tyre wall looming and a big impact. Race over.

I was taken to the med centre where my manly parts where checked over and some bruises and whiplash later we are ok to race – except the bike – front wheel at a funny angle and something bent – so that’s the weekend over with no spare machine – totally gutted but we gave it our best shot. And, I think, proved that we can run at the front and achieve my goal for the year which is a podium.

Hopefully the bike will be sorted for the next round and we can have another bite of the cherry!