Due to FIM restrictions you are not allowed to test at a circuit up to six days prior to the day you are due to race there. This meant we only were only able to use two of the four days that Racedays.net were running for testing so there was rather a long wait until the following Thursday when it was time to do it for real. Passes collected, transponders signed for and bikes scrutineered there was nothing left but to walk the circuit and wait a bit more.

Free practice and the two qualifying sessions came and went fairly quickly and, aside from Matt’s little off when he lost the front in turn three, there was no major excitement or trauma. Having been careful to monitor the minor things such as free play in the clutch, the slack in the throttle cables, etc. and made sure everything was adjusted correctly, come the race we found out the hard way that having people adjust things trying to be helpful was frequently a bad plan.

With the best of intentions someone had adjusted the free play out of the clutch lever for Chris without realising that when they got hot that free play was used up anyway. The clutch was already slipping by the time he made it round on to the grid and despite some last minute adjustments it was more a question of when, rather than if, the clutch would fail.

To his credit Chris made a fantastic start and made up at least two rows before the first corner. Unfortunately the whole crowd could hear his clutch as he went off the line and he hardly made it to the second turn before he lost most of the places he had made up. After all the effort and travelling it was heartbreaking to watch Chris come round at barely ten miles per hour to retire with a very poorly clutch.

Photos copyright @ MIST Suzuki Racing 2006

Thursday

Getting excited now!

Sorted all paperwork out and attended riders briefing about new (and very exciting!?) rules. Met up with some of the people I talked to death last year and got an early night ready for the mornings practice session.

Friday

First practice session was tough, Valencia’s unpredictable nature meant the circuit had become much less grippy than the previous week (rain had washed the rubber off). This, coupled with the high temperatures causing the tyres to overheat, made the first session a little hairy! I managed a slightly quicker lap time than I had in the previous week’s practice.

Friday afternoon’s qualifying session was both a blessing and a curse! I rode the bike like the devil was riding pillion, unfortunately this didn’t result in the faster lap times I wanted. I tried too hard and, although pushed the bike hard, my lines became very sloppy and inconsistent, as all I was focussing on was pushing the bike to (and past!) its limit. It is a very humbling experience to discover that pushing a bike so hard that you are leaving black lines and losing the front is not enough to do well at this level. Exhausted, frustrated and confused, I went to The Boss (Mike “F.” Edwards, team manager) for words of wisdom. Like a wise old Kung Fu master, he managed to put one phrase in my head which summed up everything that had been lacking from my riding on Friday, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, leaving me alone in the temple to follow the path to enlightenment (ok maybe that last bit is a little beyond the truth, but it’s a good metaphor!). With a calmed mental attitude, and Mike’s wisdom I headed for “Mount CG” another time.

Saturday

The final qualifying saw a new found calmness in my riding and, rather than attacking every corner like a wild bezerker on a raging wildebeest, I thought about my riding, joining the (imaginary) dots on the track to follow the correct lines. As I eased up the pace, I managed to go a couple of tenths faster than I ever had before on this track, but, most importantly, I did it consistently and with ease. Although my final qualifying time was a low 1:47, my ideal time (made up of all my best split times for the session) was a 1:46.1! Starting from near the back of the grid, I was confident that with a good start I could be straight back in the fight and doing what I had come here to do.

Unfortunately, it was not to be, as the fickle finger of fate struck on the sighting lap. As I left the line, the clutch gave in on my bike. We desperately tried to repair it on the grid but there was nothing we could do. I decided to start the race anyway, hoping for a miracle to fix my clutch on the warm up lap! Unfortunately, Mike’s Kung Fu miracle powers had been exhausted repairing Matt’s bike after his minor excursion during qualifying. As the lights went out I gave the bike its last chance and gunned it off the line. Although I managed to overtake a handful of riders off the line without a working clutch I was going no further and was out of the race before the first turn.

So the first round was a rollercoaster of emotions, but despite being gutted that I was robbed of a chance in the race, I feel I have really developed a new maturity and skill in my riding that should serve me very well in Monza and for the rest of the season.

There concludes the longest race/test day report in history, in my usual, er… interesting, style! A massive thanks to everyone, but notably the following people:

• Mike “F” Edwards for his help in sorting out my mental approach
• Steve “spanners” Jordan for doing a great job of setting up my bike and for working so hard to fix the bikes whenever they need it
• Sarah “leathers stealing” Jordan for sorting out all our gear
• Gerry at Racedays.Net for sorting the track time
• Jeremy McWilliams for his tutoring and telling me to break the law (well kind of…)
• Roger for tolerating me and sponsoring me and tolerating me some more!!
• Nan and Grandad for driving the Truck to Monza, cooking (Nan) and tolerating me
• Kenny Pryde for letting me talk him to death and for the “Oreos” biscuits
• The Bonds for the use of the truck
• Mark Bentley for photos
• And anyone else who has helped out, you know who you are!

Summary

Well, that was certainly an eye-opener of a weekend to say the least! Everything was so much more than I could have ever expected or imagined. I came away with so much from the opening round that it can only get better from here on and hopefully build on the two points I bought home.

Friday – Free Practice

Thanks to the previous weekend’s race school it didn’t really take much to get back into the swing of things on track and after a few laps I began to find my rhythm and it all came flooding back into memory. After tagging onto the back of Barry Burrell for a few laps I bought the bike into the pits just to check up on the times and see where we stood compared to everyone else. Unsurprisingly I was in the lower half of the field, but had bettered my previous best lap round the circuit. Returning to the track I put in a few more laps on my lonesome and tried a few different lines to the ones I had been using and found them fairly effective. At the end of the session I placed 26th which wasn’t too disheartening, when I knew I could easily have gone quicker. Back in the pits we altered the bike slightly just to make it turn in quicker and hold the line better in the turns.

Friday – 1st Qualifying

With first qualifying being held in the late afternoon we opted to use the second set of our appointed new sets of tyres (the first being used in the morning’s session) with the theory being that we could set a better lap time in the cooler conditions than would be possible in the following days session, which was to be held at lunchtime in the peak of the Spanish heat. I gave the tyres a couple of laps to ‘scrub-in’ and then set about pushing to improve my lap times. For the first ten minutes I just got my head down and caught onto the back of one of the Honda Italia bikes and got a decent enough tow to put in some vastly improved laps and when I popped into the pits after fifteen minutes of the session complete I was pleasantly pleased to see myself in 14th place on the provisional grid! All of which lasted about three minutes as some of the other guys began to pick up the pace again. Back on track for the final ten minutes and although I didn’t improve my time I matched it, but this time by riding on my own with no tow or slipstream to tuck into, so it was a definite confidence boost to know that I was getting close to the top guys in the field. The session ended with me going over a second faster than I managed in free practice and put me in a respectable and quite satisfying provisional 20th place on the grid for Saturday evening’s race, and the times were so close that a half a second faster would have seen me into the top 10! A few more small adjustments to the bike were made ready fro Saturday morning’s 2nd qualifying session and I slept with a smile on my face knowing it was all heading in the right direction, maybe I shouldn’t have felt so confident in hindsight!

Saturday – 2nd Qualifying

We opted to save our final new set of tyres for the race, so started the session on the tyres used during the Friday morning outing. Everything was feeling really good and five minutes in the times began to speed up and the bike began to work superbly well. Spotting a group just in front of me I got my head down and put in my fastest lap of the weekend but then it all went wrong. On entering turn four all I remember is entering slightly off line and down I went. I’d lost the front end and the bike and I were sent swiftly into the exceptionally deep gravel trap. Bugger! The front of the bike took a bit of a beating, but luckily suffered only cosmetic damage, a smashed set of dials and front sub-frame. Returning to the pits I knew the team were less than happy with me so I went and watched the timing screens as I saw myself slip further and further down the grid. I was eventually left languishing down in 26th place on the grid knowing that I should have just used my head a little more and probably backed it off and settled for a safe time rather than go for it all at once. Lesson learnt the hard way!

Saturday – Race

Despite nearly missing the sighting lap we made it to the grid in good time and found my grid slot with relative ease.Sitting on the grid with a rapidly repaired race bike I had never felt so nervous. All the TV cameras and photographers about the place really bought home just what the championship is about. It was a somewhat surreal experience to be honest. Once all the mechanics and team personnel left the grid I felt alone and had to take a few deep breaths just to relax myself and focus in on the job at hand. Leaving for the warm up lap and all the thoughts and worries left me, and I returned to feeling normal, well as normal as any rider can feel before the start of any race. Back to the grid and something must have worked right as when the lights went out a made a good start! It never happens, but for some reason I got off the line better than any of the guys around me and found myself passing people on the way into the first turn. Entering turn two was more of an avoidance practice as four bikes slid across the track and everyone else stood up suddenly in the middle of the melee. Somehow I found a way straight through without too much trouble and blasted off onto the rest of the lap. Someone had told me these guys in Europe back it off for the opening laps……where did they get that idea? Everyone was going like a bullet out of a gun! It was manic! End of lap one and by some minor miracle I’d fought my way up to 16th place! From here I became involved in a battle for 13th with Andrzej Chmielewski, Daniel Beretta and Eddi Lamarra. This lasted throughout the race, with our quartet having great fun swapping paint and positions on almost every turn. It was one of the greatest battles I have had in a long time! By lap nine I’d begun to drop back and with the front tyre beginning to overheat and losing grip at a rapid rate, I decided to sit back and settle for a result rather than push and risk a second fall, which nearly happened round the ultra fast turn three when my knee was the only thing that held my bike upright! Final lap and with no chance of catching Beretta in front of me and with a decent gap behind me I rolled the speed back a tad, and ended up gaining two places as Lamarra exited the track after running wide at turn 8 and Andrea Antonelli fell whilst in third place, although he remounted to take 15th place! I crossed the line in 14th place and was ecstatic and had the biggest grin on my face and all the worries and nerves left me and the thoughts of the crash became nothing more than a distant memory. It was the best feeling returning back to the paddock and seeing the team as happy as me. It was a cracking result for us all and far surpassed my own and the teams expectations. It was a cracking way to start the season!

Thanks to –

• MIST Suzuki Racing
• T&J Commercial Repairs
• Steve Jordan Motorcycles
• www.givemethekeys.com
• Racedays.Net
• Mike Edwards
• Steve Jordan
• Graham Cook
• Alan Brown
• All the teams sponsors and supporters
• Jerry @ Racedays
• Jeremy McWilliams
• All my friends and family who watched back home on the internet!
• Mum and Dad, sorry I smashed the bike up but thanks for everything

BRING ON MONZA IN TWO WEEKS!

Summary

After a couple of days testing thanks to Gerry Bryce at Racedays.net and Jeremy McWilliams the two MIST Suzuki riders were able to take some time to learn the Valencia circuit and ride their 2006 Suzuki GSXR600K6 bikes for the first time. The riders would be contesting the European SuperStock 600 series, a support class at all European rounds of the World SuperBike Championship.

For Matt Bond, the 2005 MRO MiniTwins Champion, this was his first time on a 600 after moving up from the 72 hp SV650 he rode last year. Chris Northover, started 2005 in the MRO MiniTwins before gaining a wildcard ride in the SuperStock class on an R6.

Having made some good improvements learning both the circuit and the bikes both riders made some significant improvements in terms of both their riding and their ability to think about what they are doing whilst on the circuit.

With only one half hour practice and two half hour qualifying sessions before the race it was going to be a gamble as to when to use the three sets of tyres we had available (the series limits us to just 3 sets of tyres with no choice on compound or model, in our case Pirelli Diablo Corsa tyres).

After a very hot first practice on Friday lunch time (Matt in 27th with 1’47.113 and Chris in 29th with 1’47.308, both in front of some experienced and very fast guys who rode in the series last year) both riders struggled with their tyres overheating so we took the gamble of using a fresh set for first qualifying in the late afternoon as the cooler conditions should help get the most from them.

Both riders improved over their previous testing times having started to get used to the new tyres (a combination of the profile from the Diablo tyre combined with a dual compound rear to give greater grip). Matt took advantage of a tow from one of the faster riders to post a 1’45.620 and qualify in 20th place. Chris had a few problems and was trying to override the bike yet still managed to lap in 1’47.373, putting him in 33rd place overall.

Whilst Chris concentrated on getting his head together I walked the track with Matt and suggested some different lines and potential reference points to help him improve for the following day.

For a short while on Saturday morning it looked like our tyre strategy had paid off as it rained first thing and the track was very wet. Just our luck that it dried out just in time for second qualifying and was much cooler than the previous day. Everyone was bound to go faster and we were only left with the half worn tyres from the previous day if we were to save a new set for the race.

The long conversation with Chris the previous evening about his riding position and some suggestions on how to smooth out his approach to the circuit helped and he declared the session as probaby the best riding he had done since he started racing. He beat his previous best with a 1’47.089 which was encouraging as he was on very worn tyres and felt very relaxed and happy that he could improve in the race. Dropping to 35th position after qualifying wasn’t a problem as his new found consistency, and positive approach, meant he should be able to make up quite a few places come the race.

Matt had his session shortened dramatically when he lost the front after going off line in to turn 4. He was unhurt but the bike would need some work before the race later in the afternoon. Prior to jumping off Matt had posted his fastest ever time of 1’45.604 - All without the benefit of a tow, in fact his top speed was down 5 km an hour down the straight over the previous session so he was obviously getting to grips with the bike and making up the time in the corners.

The race was a bit of a last minute rush as having confirmed that 5:40 pm was the time we needed to be on the grid it turned out that 5:40 pm was the time for the race start and we needed to be on the grid at least 15 minutes before then. We weren’t the last on the grid though and both riders had time to settle themselves before the warm up lap and the start.

Chris complained of a slipping clutch after warm up and with only time to adjust the lever before the grid was cleared he made a great start to overtake the row in front. Unfortunately by the time he got in to third gear the bike was revving freely but not going anywhere. He toured round behind the safety car and had to retire at the end of the lap with a very burnt out clutch.

Matt also made a good start from 26th place, positioned on the outside being preferable to the inside position from the 20th place he held after first quaifying. He made up a several places around the outside of the first corner and was ideally positioned to make up another three in to turn two. As he turned the corner several riders went down in front of him as another rider collected a couple of others on the way out of the turn.

Having survived the drama, passing another couple in to the next corner to find himself in 14th place, he soon caught a group ahead posting his best lap of 1’45.112 in the process. These guys were clearly holding him up as his lap times dropped. It was only after another rider made an unhelpful block pass under a yellow flag that Matt lost the tow and his overheating front tyre made another challenge unlikely.

Matt was caught towards the end of the race by a much more experienced rider who pushed him back another place to 16th. With enough of a gap to the guys behind Matt rode well to maintain his position and was rewarded when the rider who had overtaken under the yellow flag ran wide on the last lap and Matt was able to retake the place putting him back in a points scoring position.

At the same time one of the front runners had a minor gravel excursion and, although he rejoined, Matt was able to catch and pass him in the last sector to move up to 14th at the flag.

Points from our first race? A top twenty was more than we could possiby hope for from our first meeting but despite just 1.5 days testing since moving up from his 72 hp MiniTwins bike we had exceeded all expectations.

More importantly both riders had improved dramatically in their approach and maturity in their riding which has everybody excited for Monza in two weeks time.

Mike Edwards
Team Manager - MIST Suzuki

Would like to thank main sponsors www.givemethekeys.com and Steve Jordan Motorcycles for their never ending support and the help given to the team from B & C Express, Dyna Pro, RaceDays.net, S&B Commercials and Silkolene.

Viva L’Espagne

Wednesday morning, 9:00am. After joining up with the Bond contingent at Dover, we boarded the ferry on our mission to Valencia. In record time, they were sick of my endless chattering by approximately 9:02am! The boat was fun, we won a whole £1 on the quiz machine which I was delighted with. Then Matt pointed out we’d spent more than a tenner trying to win, dammit!

Once off the ferry and on the road the journey seemed to take forever so Matt and I passed the hours away by seeing if it was possible to talk the fastest lap of Valencia! I also indulged in the mindless pap that is sudoku and feel very ashamed to admit it!

Come Friday and we finally got the chance to ride in our first session on track, exciting enough after the winter lay off, but with the added bonus of following a certain Mr. McWilliams of GP fame. Within a few laps we were starting to get a feel for the lines around the challenging Ricardo Tormo Circuit. After the first session Matt and I were separated on fastest laps by something like 5/100ths of a second! Throughout the remaining sessions we gradually got faster with Matt getting down to a lap time of 1min 47seconds. Saturday morning gave the opportunity for some video work, with Jeremy riding round with us filming from behind then from in front. This gave us the opportunity to see not only our own riding styles, but also to see the difference between the lines we should be on and the lines we were on! It was a real eye opener leading to comments like:

“I could have sworn I was closer to the apex than that!”

and

“Nah that can’t be me riding, I didn’t brake there, summat wrong with your camera mate!”.

So determined to make a better job of meeting apexes and riding the correct lines, we continued to lap, under the watchful eye of Jeremy who was on hand at all times to give tips and pointers enabling us to get the lap times lower. We finished the day both on 1:47 lap times (although Matt was a few tenths of a second faster but I’m not going to admit that!). We spent Sunday watching the other riders, especially the Stiggy Motorsports team rider who was going into the first turn so sideways there was blue smoke from his rear tyre, mental!

Monday

Cimbed the mountain (ok, hill) behind the track in the pouring rain and named it “Mount CG”. Got very wet. And cold. And got blisters on my feet. Should have thought more carefully about that!

Tuesday

Climbed “Mount CG” again, in the sunshine this time!

Bought some “double pluggies” (that’s sandals to most people!) and did loads of revision (ahem) for uni work.

Wednesday

Gave Mount CG a miss, revised instead (hope my lecturers read this!!).

Went to find the sea/beach with Roger. Now, you’d have thought it would be just a case of driving to Valencia (which is on the coast) and then aiming for the big blue wobbly thing. Not so. Two and a half hours later after the umpteenth CG Detour tm, we gave up and headed back to the circuit.

Summary

This was the first time I’d done any kind of race school and it really did surprise me just how much I learnt over the two days of testing. The school was really friendly and welcoming throughout and the experience was invaluable. I’d definitely book myself in for another if I could afford it!

Day One – Friday

After the quick briefing session it was onto the track for Chris and me, and the plan for us, to follow ex-MotoGP start Jeremy McWilliams! Just being in the same pit was an experience, but riding with him was something else. First session was a bit of downer as the bike just wouldn’t handle, I just couldn’t get the thing to turn, but fortunately this was solved once we got back into pit lane. Second session and the bike felt much better. It was just easier to ride and felt a lot more comfortable. Another session with Jeremy showing us the lines helped me get my mind in gear and showed me just where the time and speed can be gained. It was about now that I realised just how fast the circuit was when Mr McWilliams decided to ride round the outside of me on the sweeping final left hander, and I thought I was going fast! A new set of tyres made all the difference for the third session, and I began to pick up the pace and I even had my first proper backing it in and power sliding happenings half way through the day. Further sessions through the day helped me get my a better feel for the lines and a few words of McWilliams helped figure out some of the more technical sections on the track. Overall the day went well and being slightly quicker than Chris was a bit of a bonus too!

Day Two – Saturday

After a great first day I was hoping to get a bit more speed on the second day’s activities. First time out and it just felt so quick, I think overnight my mind forgot to tell me to brake at the last turn as I took a slight excursion onto the grass, fortunately keeping it upright. Next up was a video taping session with Jeremy McWilliams and it was great to see just what I was doing and how I could improve. It taught me a lot about getting the lines right and standing the bike up out of the corners. A quick review of the entire video helped immensely in understanding what had to be done to get on the pace. It defiantly helped put the theory into practice and helped me get a lot more comfortable at a much faster pace than I’d have expected. With the tyres on the bike beginning to deteriorate pretty dramatically we decided to call it a day and I just sat and watched the quick boys put in some ridiculously fast laps, whilst also getting ideas for the races and seeing which new lines I could try when I got back on track.

Conclusion

What an awesome experience! Can’t say just how good the academy was! I loved every second of it. Big thanks to Gerry and the Racedays.Net crew and a huge thank you to Jeremy McWilliams for all his expert advice. Another shout out and thank you to Steve Jordan for setting the suspension up for me (yet again)!

After some long delays for parts and then a mad rush to get everything fitted so the bikes could be set up on the dyno the long trek to Valencia began. Needless to say that the journey was much longer than we anticipated although I suspect it is something that we would soon get used to. Not sure whether that is a god thing or a bad one but…

The bike still had to have the bodywork fitted at the circuit and we hadn’t had the chance to fit some fresh rubber so it was a busy introduction to the season. We decided to not fit the stickers to the fairings until after the testing as we didn’t have many spares with us and didn’t want to tempt fate. The Racedays.net set up was excellent with loads of advice for Matt and Chris from Jeremy McWilliams.

It was easy to forget that aside form the abortive couple of sessions at a cold Cadwell Park this was the first time Matt had ever ridden a 600cc bike and the first time in ages that he had needed to learn a new circuit. With lots of help and encouragement plus the excellent tuition from Jeremy both riders were soon picking up the pace.

It was interesting for me to see how they both rode and learn how they learnt things during the two days. Having worked with Matt before it was encouraging how quickly he got on with the bike but however fast he went Chris was always just a fraction of a second behind. We had all expected Chris to be much faster on a 600 than Matt, initially at least, but when the handling on his R6 from 2005 could only be described as challenging it was almost as if he was having to learn to ride a bike for the first time.

Photos copyright @ MIST Suzuki Racing 2006