Silverstone Round 3

It’s been a long while since I was last at Silverstone and the circuit has changed since then – however it’s pretty straight forward to learn so we should be ok.

For morning practice the pending rain hasn’t started properly yet but it was damp enough for wets - I take to the track for the 10 min session hoping to get a feel for things and all goes well – Qualifying is very shortly afterwards and the track looks like it will dry so we change over to some scrubbed dry tyres - half way through it starts spitting and then chucks it down – I was starting to pick the pace up a bit and got the general jist of things – we get third on the grid which is ok.

For the race its wet wet wet so no problems with tyre choice, I don’t get the best start but hold 3rd into the first corner – it takes me a few laps to find my wet feet them I’m away and into 2nd holding the gap to Sweatshop in the lead – however they were quick off the mark and I’m 10 or so secs down on him – they are racing one bike and 2 riders which means they have less pit stops and longer ride times so its going to be very hard for us to beat them. I finish my first stint having pulled around 10 secs on 3rd place and lost around the same to the leaders. Andy shoots off for his stint and as always bangs in consistent fast laps.

For the next stint its raining even harder and now there is lying water everywhere, I’m loving it tho and the new forks are much better in the wet than the old set so I’ve no shortage of grip and can keep banging in the laps pulling further away from 3rd place but not able to make any impact on the leaders – however I’m not backing off in case they have bad pitstop of any problems. Andy is ready and waiting for the pit and is off like a scolded cat again continuing to pull away from 3rd.

In the break between sessions I’m getting really colds as the water has sunk into my leathers and boots and I’m shaking and need to get back out quick! Soon enough I’m out and the conditions are real bad now – my rear tyre has passed its best after putting in some quick times earlier and I’m sideways and spinning loads, the back straight is one big puddle now and I cant get any power down. The K8 Gixxer I ride has 3 modes for power so I switch over to B (which is slow 600 power) and this does improve matters as I can get on the gas full throttle – however a few laps into this disaster strikes as the warning light comes on and nearly pitches me over the bars as the engine dies as it did at Cadwell – I cant believe it and it seems that all the effort is wasted, I pull over to try and reset but it doesn’t work so I pit thinking that all is lost – we try and reset the bike and this time it works and I’m away – good job we had a good cushion on 3rd place as we manage to hold 2nd. My session ends very quickly after this and Andy’s off again and holding is own as always. However a few laps from the end and we can hear the bike making loud noises as it passes – it sounds terminal but Andy brings it home to take 2nd place.

So another 2nd place and we now lead the championship, despite the weather we had a great weekend and I think we both rode well in the conditions and really deserved the 2nd place. The whole team were excellent as always with great management, pit boarding food and hospitalilty and I am indeed very lucky to be part of TM72 this year.