Cadwell Park Dave Holland Trophy

Although the last Snetterton round was financially my last trip out a big thanks must go to Mark @ Holbeach Tyres who made it possible for me to attend the Dave Holland festival at Cadwell Park.

We managed to free up enough money to get the entries together but despite pulling out all the plugs I could not find the money for some new rubber so we only had the same tyres from Snetterton to use that had already done 3 races. Anyway it was for a good cause and any track time is more fun than no track time.
The weather looked like playing into my hands as I had some new wets, but dance as much as I did I still could not make it rain enough to get the wets on – it drizzled pretty much every time on track and it was very wind and damn cold aswell but no real rain!
In qualifying I guessed at the gearing having only ridden the gixxer there before on road gearing and it wasn’t far off, we qualified 5th in very strong field and was relatively happy with that.

We had 4 races, 2 open and 2 allcomers in Dave’s memory – which is the race that everyone wanted to win!
Race one I got a good start but was pushed out to the white line going into turn 1 and was totally blocked and pushed down the field, I made a few places but try as I might I could not get passed the man in front to try and get with the lead pack even though I felt I could pull away if I could get passed so we finished well down the order.

The first Dave Holland Race I was determined not to get boxed in again, on the warn up lap it was almost raining and I had a couple of slides and was not too sure how much grip there was – still I went for it off the line and was leading on the first lap, however a couple of slides dented my confidence on my already ageing tyres and I was forced back to 4th place but still in sight of the leaders and feeling better then the first race.

The second open race was only a 1 race later so it was back to the awning on with the warmers – down some water and out again – This time I had a race long battle for 5th place which was very entertaining – especially for the crowd by all accounts as 3rd to 10th were all within 3 seconds - awesome.

The last Dave Holland race I was in 4th on the grid following the 1st race result and really thought I had a chance of the podium if I could hold it together - I looked over my shoulder and could see some quality riders on the line behind all thinking the same thing - awesome. I got away to a good start and was in 2nd place and comfy for the first few laps, however on the lap 4 and was politely moved out of the way going into park and lost 2 places – but I was straight back on it and on the tail again when I was moved again going into hall bends and had to lose another spot to cross the line 6th – gutted after the good start but that’s racing and I am sure with fresh rubber we could have been stronger all day and definitely stronger at the end of the day!

All in all we are definitely improving on the bike every time out and proved that we can run at the front with some riders who have been winning on pro bikes for years – so we are definitely going to be in the right place for the start of 2009 and challenging for the wins from the start.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my sponsors who have stuck by me during this tough year and I hope I have returned the faith with some strong riding in the end! See you all in 2009.