The end of the season is fast approaching and we are already at the penultimate round of the 2008 championship. It’s been a challenging season, and with the terrible weekend we had in the last round at Donington Park, we hoped for more success at Magny Cours.

The start of the weekend turned out to be rather eventful, and in actual fact we were lucky to be at this round at all. Mike, our team owner, who drives the truck to the meetings, had had some recent surgery and complications necessitated him being unfortunately admitted to hospital when he was due to leave for France. So in order to compete we needed to come up with another plan.

Communications were backwards and forwards with Mike in hospital, and we devised a plan at the final hour and got underway. My cousin Jay and good friend and mechanic Lloyd stepped in with an hour’s notice, and left from the North West of England and drove through the night to London to pick the truck up and caught the ferry across to France and continued down to the track, a few hours drive south of Paris.

With only a short nap on the ferry, they arrived at 2.p.m. ready for us to set up. My uncle and aunt, Baz and Lynda, also flew over from England to assist with the task of running the team for the weekend. By late evening we had the awning up, floor down, truck unloaded, and it was time to get the swags out for some well earned sleep. Thanks heaps guys!

Friday - First Practice

It was freezing at the track, falling to 0 degrees overnight and for the first session at 9 a.m. on Friday morning it was raining with an air temp of 4 degrees and track temp of 3 degrees. The weather remained this way for most of the day, so our afternoon session was much the same. We were limited to 3 sets of wet tyres for the weekend so we were careful not to waste them. Although wet tyres are unlimited, Pirelli only have sufficient room to carry 3 sets per rider. We used the sessions to get what we could from the bike on the slippery French track and made changes accordingly.

Saturday - Second Practice

The Saturday morning practice session was on a drying line and in a bid to save tyres we opted to only do a few laps. I did one flying lap mid session which was good enough for 9th at the time, however dropped to 17th by session end. Just enough to find some confidence to make a charge in final qualifying Saturday afternoon, should the weather again be rainy.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

Saturday afternoon qualifying was dry and with the forecast for a dry race on Sunday, we were back to being able to use 3 sets of dry tyres. We decided it was best to use 2 rears and doing as many laps as possible to get a decent time. Unfortunately I left it too late to go out with a new tyre and only had 8 minutes to put a time in.

Sure, not usually a problem unless you hit traffic on your fast lap, which of course is exactly what happened! I was only able to better my time by a few tenths which deprived me of a much better starting position. I was really disappointed with what had happened as I had felt good on the bike during the early parts of the session. So, a frustrating 23rd is where I would start the race.

Sunday - Race

Morning warm up was dry and the weather was clear but so cold for the race. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Magny Cours circuit, the start finish straight is quite short and the grid is fairly closely spaced.

A good start and good position into turn 1 is important. I got off the line well and made a space for myself into turn 1. I got straight into it and managed to make a few places on the brakes at the end of the back straight.

I knew a point’s finish was possible if I didn’t get too caught up in the early laps. I was pushing hard and got myself to the front of the pack I was in, just inside the points. Shortly after the 2nd lap the bike felt really flat and I had to go back to 1st gear to get enough drive to get out of the hairpin after the back straight. The dash showed a fault code flashing, which explained the lack of pull off the turns and reduced top end.

I tried to ride smoothly with as much corner speed as I could manage for the remaining 12 laps. I battled with quite a few different riders over the race distance and eventually finished 17th, disappointingly just outside the points, but fortunately this result didn’t affect my championship standing and I remained in the same position.

So off to the last round in a couple of weeks, in what we hope will be a sunny Portimao. This will not only be the finale of the season, but a brand new race circuit and one where the majority of riders will not have tested at prior to this meeting. I have every intention of pulling off a good result at this round!!!

Huge thanks to my family for all their hard work on the weekend.

Matt Bond @ Brands Hatch WSB round

MIST Suzuki Racing - New Truck Graphics

Not Quite The Champion of Brands… Gareth Jones on the podium

Gareth Jones @ Champion of Brands

Gareth Jones @ Champion of Brands

Round 8 of the FIM Superstock 1000 Championship at Donington in the UK finally came around after a month long break. The weather forecast was for drizzle, fog, rain, wind and thunderstorms, and that’s exactly what we got. The only relief we had was a brief moment on Thursday during setup, and intermittent parts of Sunday afternoon. I was confident of a good result, not deterred at all by a full wet weekend.

Friday - First Practice

Unfortunately the start of my weekend didn’t go as planned. In the early laps of first practice, on Friday morning’s rain soaked track, I highsided coming onto the straight out of the final hairpin. Not only was I then missing a lot of track time, but I also sustained an injury, in the form of a fractured scaphoid to my left hand.

Friday - First Qualifying

I headed into the afternoon qualifying session feeling worse for wear, however I was determined to put it out of my mind and start afresh. The pace was getting faster and I was still learning the track, so becoming familiar with the conditions was the most important thing. There were parts of the track that were very grippy and others, such as the final hairpin, that were catching riders out all day. 77 riders actually crashed on Friday alone.

Saturday - Second Practice

With the data we had gathered from the Friday afternoon session, I was feeling more confident with the conditions. This reflected in Saturday morning’s session, where I found quite a lot of time and more feel with the bike.

The weather conditions remained much the same all day, so at the very least the track was fairly consistent going into the final qualifying session, but with a glimmer of the rain easing, Saturday afternoon was the best the track had been all weekend.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

By this time my left wrist and hand were quite stiff. We are extremely fortunate in the WSB paddock, to have the services of Clinica Mobile, a tremendous group of very professional medical staff, who do an amazing job with the riders (and paddock crew) attending to all injuries, aches, pains and complaints. They operate, suture, x-ray, bandage, massage and whatever else is needed to keep the riders safely on track. On each occasion, prior to riding, they injected the area with several doses of anesthetic to numb the majority of the pain.

I went into the final session feeling cautious.. The rain had stopped but the track was still completely soaked. I felt my way around for most of the session before putting my best time in on the last lap. I qualified 19th. I wasn’t concerned at this stage as we were working on my pace through the last sector of the track, where I was losing most of my time. I had a lack of feel from the rear end of the bike when opening the throttle hard off slow turns, however my first 2 sectors were reasonably on pace.

Sunday - Race

I was 14th in Sunday morning warm up. By the time we were taking our grid positions the rain had stopped and there was much less water sitting on the track, and a couple of riders gambled for intermediates. We opted for full wets. The first lap of the race was carnage, a few riders went down right in front of me and I had to brake heavily to avoid them on more than one occasion.

By the time I came over the start finish line I had lost a lot of time and the race had spread out quickly. I crossed in 16th and the riders immediately in front of me were holding me up so I pushed hard to make a pass out of the old hairpin at the bottom of craner curves. Disappointingly, I pushed just a little too hard too soon and highsided out of the race.

It was a very frustrating moment and although I tried to rejoin the race, the brake lever had lost pressure so continuing was impossible. It was my first DNF this year. Over to Magny Cours in France in a couple of weeks for next round. I look forward to speaking to you all soon.

Friday - First Practice

Round 7 of the championship saw us at Brands Hatch in England. After getting in a few laps on the scooter on Thursday afternoon, I realized the circuit had lived up to what I had heard. It is a pretty wild circuit with many ups and downs with a few blind corners thrown in for good measure.

As usual the Superstock class kicks off proceedings at 9am Friday morning. The lap time around the fairly fast Brands circuit is only a minute and a half, so I managed to get quite a few laps in during the 30 minute practice. However it was straight into the pits after the session to decide on the changes we were going to make for the afternoon qualifying session.

The settings we had used at Brno were less than ideal for the British track. We were a little behind this weekend as our suspension technician was not available, so it was a matter of using the small amount of time on track to change what we could to improve the handling of the bike.

The afternoon qualifying was not very productive and I ended up in a disappointing position, somewhat further south of the leader than I was hoping. However I was positive that Saturday morning practice would prove to be a little more promising, and I hoped we would have a better idea of where to head with the setup of my bike.

Nevertheless dramas continued to plague us, and the weekend seemed to be heading in the total opposite direction to that of the last round at Brno, where we appeared to be moving forward.

Even though we managed to improve by 1.2 seconds in the second qualifying session, the problems with the set up of the bike were still very apparent, and I was certainly struggling, obvious by my hugely disappointing qualifying position of 29th.

My spirits were down, but the one thing that did work in our favor was the fact that the weather was looking really ordinary for the Sunday morning race. I was desperate for a stroke of luck which could perhaps come in the form of some rain! In Sunday morning’s 10 minute warm up, it was raining quite heavily and I was 14th quickest, so I had my fingers crossed that the weather would set in.

An hour and a half later and we’re off and racing. The rain had stopped, and in parts the track was drying quickly, but it was looking very bleak. It was going to be a tough call as to what tyres to run for the race. We left it as long as possible before making a decision, but at the time we needed to make that choice, it was definitely not going to be full wets.

We had some last minute dramas in the pits, and I ended up on the grid with full wets. It was my intention to join the grid with a wet front and an intermediate rear, and then my choice would have been to change the wet front to an intermediate also. Because of lack of time, we only managed to get a cold intermediate rear on my bike, whilst on the grid, and with no time left to change the front, I was left with a wet front for racing.

I knew my only chance to get up into the points was to go as hard as I could off the start. I got off the line well, and aimed straight for the inside going into turn 1. I managed some good passes and crossed the line after lap 1 in 16th. I continued to push in the early laps, before the wet front started to overheat and that made things difficult. I got up into 10th position, but about 6 laps into the 14 lap race, the track had a completely dry line.

I had some good battles but towards the end of the race the tyres felt like marshmallow and even holding a line in some of the slower corners was proving to be very difficult. However, all things aside, I managed to finish the race in 11th and take home some valuable points. It was a hard few days but points are points at the end of the day and I was satisfied to have come from 29th on the grid to finish in 11th place.

Thanks to family and friends who were able to come to support me at Brands.

Friday - First Practice

Three weeks after Misano we were back at Brno. We did a test at Brno before the Misano meeting, so it was the first circuit since Valencia, that I had ridden at before the round. I was really glad that at least we could go there for the race, with a basic idea of a setup to start with. I really liked the track as well, it was one of the longest, widest and one of the most challenging circuits I’d ridden at before.

In first practice the track was very dirty and slippery. Lap times were way off and it was only a matter of a few laps before the tyres were absolutely torn to bits. I was 17th in this session, however with the bad track conditions, most riders put in their fastest lap within the first 4 laps, so the positions were sure to change and times would drop considerably in the first qualifying session.

Friday - First Qualifying

After watching the time sheets from the other classes, times were dropping and the track was obviously getting quicker so I was keen to get back on track for the afternoon 45 minute qualifier. With a few adjustments, I tried to use the session constructively, as tyre ware, particularly front, was going to be a factor, and I needed to get in some good laps while the tyres were good. A lap time of 2.06.0 put me in 16th. I wasn’t too disappointed with this as I knew there were a few key changes we could make to assist with set up, I just hoped it wouldn’t rain for the next qualifier, as the weather was overcast and trying to rain.

Saturday - Second Practice

Superstock is out first up on Saturday morning and we were using old tyres in this session. Times would depend a lot on how well I could push on these tyres and more importantly how long they would last. We made a fork spring change and it certainly helped hold the front up more on corner entry where the front had been pushing. We made several changes during the session and I managed 13th fastest. Nevertheless, this was only free practice but we were moving in the right direction and this gave us a good base for some minor changes for the final qualifying at 4:45 that afternoon.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

The clouds had threatened rain throughout the day but luckily it held off giving everyone the chance to better their starting position. I was confident with new tyres that I could improve my first qualifying. I waited until I could find a clear patch of track and put in a few hard laps with the new tyres. I moved up to 13th on the grid from 16th, before pitting to make further changes. However in the closing minutes of qualifying I couldn’t get a lap together clear of traffic to improve further, but 13th has been my best starting position to date so I was happy that with a good start and consistent laps I could be much further toward the sharp end of the field.

Sunday - Race

Sunday morning and clear weather was sure to mean a dry race and 9th in the 10 minute warm up was a good start to the day. An hour later we gridded up to race. I got a solid start and was 11th across the line on lap 1. The immediate pace was quick so I pushed hard early on the stay with it and moved up into 9th before long.

The front group of 6 riders pulled a lead, then Seato was in a very lonely 7th, then trailing him was the group I was in, consisting of riders from position 8 to 15th, which was a freight train of hargy bargy, where we were constantly changing positions, banging fairings and elbows. I didn’t want to destroy my tyres early on, however my pit board said +0 every lap so I tried really hard to make a break from the group. About mid race distance I managed to move into 8th to lead the pack, nevertheless it was a real dog fight for every inch of track.

The 12 laps of the 5.5km Brno circuit went so fast, and before I knew it, the old last lap desperates were coming into play. I changed positions 3 times on the last lap and after some very close tussles I crossed the line 11th. It would have been nice to have finished in 9th where I was for most of the race, but it was definitely a hard fought race, lots of fun and quite frankly, with the way we pushing for positions, it was a big possibility that any one of us could have come down!!

We only have 4 rounds left in the Championship so I’m hoping to get a few solid finishes under the belt. Next weekend is Brands Hatch which is about 4 hours from where I’m living in England. I have ridden the short circuit there but not the actual long track that we will be racing. Who’s betting on a wet race???

Talk to you all soon.

Friday - First Practice

Two weeks after a chilly Round 4 at the Nurburgring in Germany, we headed to The Misano Adriatica in San Marino. San Marino is a Principality of Italy on the East Coast. I was told the atmosphere there was always exciting and the weather scorching hot, and we were not disappointed. We arrived on Wednesday night in preparation for setup and Thursday’s usual scrutineering. We don’t have a rider’s brief, as the schedule remains the same for the whole series and the rider’s brief was conducted at the first round in Valencia.

All prepared and ready to go for Friday morning, I was keen to get onto the track and get in as many laps as possible to learn the layout, as again this was a new circuit to me. Unfortunately and quite frustratingly, only a few corners after heading out on track I had an immediate brake problem; the lever was coming further in towards the bar with every squeeze.

The lever has a remote adjustor on the left bar and I wound it in further and further to no effect. I pitted immediately and tried to resolve the problem. The adjustor appeared to be unwinding the lever, after a number of unscheduled pit stops, it was finally revealed that the cable that winds the position in or out had split and was just spinning. Finally a quick fix in pit lane and I managed to get in 4 flying laps before time ran out.

Friday - First Qualifying

Onto qualifying and I was hoping to learn the track properly and make the right changes with suspension to allow me to at least get a decent time on the board. For this round we had another revised shock setting which definitely helped grip a lot from the rear but immediately proved to have a tendency to push the front. We made what changes we could in pit lane but I could only manage 25th. I was 8/10ths outside a top 10 at this stage. There was so much more left in it, so it was now a matter of trying to get a feel out of the front end of the Suzuki.

Saturday - Second Practice

For Saturday morning’s free practice we made the decision to try a substantial change to the geometry of the bike and also a gearing change, which unfortunately didn’t give us the desired result, but nevertheless, we made use of the time on old tyres to try something new. This gave us some idea of which direction to head for Saturday afternoon’s brief qualifying session, which was a lot more productive in finding more time, but not positions, as everybody else also moved up the order.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

Unfortunately with no prior testing at these circuits, time is very limited to get a decent set up. We also had an incident in this qualifier, resulting in my quick release fuel cap flying off on my out lap, in the fast sweeper, so I got covered in fuel and had to pit immediately. Luckily because of the very hot conditions, we had a couple of large bottles of water on pit lane and my crew was able to immediately douse me with that to get rid of the fuel! Looked like 24th was to be our starting point, again 8/10ths of a second behind a top 10 and 1.6 seconds from pole. Although the position was far from ideal, we have been really trying to get the feel from the bike and we are making some progress, albeit slow.

Sunday - Race

Sunday morning’s brief warm up was again another chance to try a subtle change which felt to be a slight improvement. I was hoping to get off the line quickly and make up positions in the early laps and also hoped to avoid any first corner pile up’s that have plagued the Superstock 1000 class this year. The lights went out and I got absolutely swamped in turn one. I needed to make time up fast, the group ahead of me quickly cleared the first lap car park so to speak, and I knew it was going to be very difficult to catch up.

My race was then about staying on, and trying to move up the order. I managed to make a lot of time up in Sector 2, which is a little more open and flowing than the rest of the circuit and I crossed the line in 16th. Although not the finishing position where I’d like to be at the end of a race, I know if I can get in some better qualifying laps, I can make improvements in my race position at the next round at Brno in the Czech Republic.

Friday - First Practice

Off to Germany, another new country to visit and the best part was yet another new race track. We arrived at the Nurburgring very late Wednesday night, ready for Thursday’s pit setup and scrutineering. It was also a bonus to me that my Dad was back again, to assist me and the team for two rounds, along with my good mate Lloyd who will be spannering for me for the rest of the year.

I was itching to get on track on Friday morning, I had only managed 2 laps on the scooter on Thursday afternoon in the pouring rain with Brendan Roberts, so I knew there was a lot of learning to be done. Initially, the circuit was dry for first practice but with only 3 laps down it started to drizzle, so most of the field pulled in.

After sitting out for 10 minutes I headed back out again to spend as much time as I could on track. The drizzle was settling by then and seconds were coming off my time each lap. The Nurburgring is 5.1 kms long and over 2 minutes a lap. I finished first practice in 18th. As usual, places were separated by hundredths of a second.

Friday - First Qualifying

We had a new shock which we were hoping to try before the Nurburgring meeting, but limited time meant we didn’t have a chance to test that before we arrived in Germany. For first qualifying Friday afternoon we opted to try the new internal shock configuration. This was much better than the shock we had been using, and I found quite a lot of time with it on track. However I could only manage 21st by the time the chequered flag was out at the end of the 25 minute session. The track proved to be quite technical and it was very clear how much time could be made or lost around the circuit. I was confident that by chipping away at the bigger problems we had, I could manage a quicker lap.

Saturday - Second Practice

Second practice on Saturday morning was dry and the way the tyre allocation works, it means that most riders are out on used tyres, which gives a good chance to use the track time to test settings on worn tyres. I have always had trouble with the steering on the Suzuki, so we tried a lighter set of forks springs which certainly helped through the tighter sections of the track. I came in several times to make changes and try to improve on the progress we had made.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

Second qualifying that afternoon was sure to be the decider for grid positions if it stayed dry, with a lot of the field dropping their times with each session. For this session we had made the decision to go with a firmer rear setting to help keep a tighter line. This second qualifying session is only 25 minutes, as opposed to the 45 minute first qualifying session so time is a lot tighter to find a good lap.

The weather was looking rather dull and we knew that we may only have a few laps before the rain hit. In fact, as I rode out of pit lane I didn’t even get to the first corner and is was pouring, so I pulled straight back into the pits and got my wets went on. Everything was ready to go on pit lane so I was quickly back on track. It wasn’t long before the rain stopped again but by now most of the track was soaked and the session would only allow for a good wet test session.

I got stuck into it and felt comfortable early, and I was surprised how grippy the surface was. I managed to put in numerous quick laps before the session ended.. When I came in I was thrilled to be told that I was the fastest rider on track by a margin of 3.2 seconds, much to the delight of the team! Needless to say I was quite happy with this and was really hoping for a wet track on race day!

Sunday - Warm Up

Race day came around all too quickly, and like all other meetings so far, just a few practice sessions too early! The weather was dull and overcast, so it was a matter of getting into the swing of things in morning warm up and using every last minute on the track to get the most from the bike we could. I was 16th in warm up and found another sizeable chunk of time but obviously it’s the race that counts.

Sunday - Race

An hour and a half later the field was gridded up and ready for a start. I got away well but once again there was a crash in turn 1 and I lost a few places avoiding it. However at the end of the lap 1 I was on the back of a large pack. I tried to move forward picking off a few riders as quickly as I could and found myself in 12th by mid race with Chris Seaton just ahead in 11th. With the final three laps to go, I started having problems. My brakes were pulling all the way into the bar and I was leaving myself quite open to getting out braked. I had to brake very early, pumping the brakes hoping to pull up in time to tip in.

Around the same time my quick shifter decided to start miss shifting, not allowing me to select some gears. I pushed on as best as I could, but unfortunately even though I was trying to ride very defensively, I lost a few positions and fell to 14th by the flag. All in all I was happy to have again been moving forward with the bike. It’s a hard game but I’m determined.

A special thanks must go to www.theaussieshop.co.uk who have very kindly sponsored me with two of their top of the range swags, so Mum and I can camp in the pits at the tracks which alleviates the dramas of getting to the tracks in the mornings and the added expense of accommodation. This is a terrific help, thanks very much.

Talk to you all after San Marino next weekend.

Friday - First Practice

Two weeks after Round Two at Assen we headed off to Monza in Italy, yet another new country to visit and of course a new race track. I’d heard that Monza was a great fast track so I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike. The Suzuki has proven to be able to well and truly hold its own in a straight line, so if there was any circuit going to wind a bike out, Monza it was.

We arrived at the track Thursday morning to finish getting setup as usual and the bikes ready to go. As soon as that was seen too, on the scooter I was to check out the track. I did a few laps with my good mate Chris Seaton who had raced there recently and could give me a bit of a run down of the circuit.

On a side note, being able to look around the circuit was also a real history lesson. Monza is like a big park, the race track runs through the middle of an enormous forest, which is also home to the old Autodrome which Monza became famous for. It was really interesting to see the old track and the huge banking that appears in parts of the park.

I was keen to be on the track for as long as possible to do as many laps as I could to get familiar with the high speed circuit. For those of you who don’t know the basic layout, Monza consists of very high speed straights and very tight chicanes, with a just a few fast flowing corners. Braking hard and getting on the gas hard was of the essence, and there was so much time to be gained or lost in these sections.

Friday - First Qualifying

The second session on Friday afternoon is a 45 minute qualifier, so we have a chance to make quite a few adjustments mid session, while still learning the track, before putting in a new set of tyres near the end, to try and put down a time. I pitted several times making changes, chasing the setup. As I’ve said in previous reports, I have had quite a lot of difficulty getting things right on the Suzuki, so the team has been working hard with me to get this sorted. I finished the qualifier in 19th position.

Saturday - Second Practice and Qualifying

Saturday, as usual consists of morning practice and a final 25 minute qualifier in the afternoon. We had made some substantial changes to the forks for the morning and I found it to be a benefit in a lot of places on the track. Therefore I felt that I would be able to improve on my position in the afternoon. We also felt that we could improve those changes we had made by making some more adjustments for the afternoon session. This required another set of forks to be built, and they were not going to be ready in time for the qualifier.

Disappointingly, we had to keep the same internal settings that were to be altered for the qualifier in the afternoon. We changed the spring rate hoping to have a similar effect. The change wasn’t as eventful as I had hoped and to make matters worse, on my out lap I had a serious technical fault that only allowed me to complete 1 flying lap. I pitted several times in the hope to locate the problem but time ran out and I ended the session having dropped several places to a very disappointing 25th.

Sunday - Warm Up

Having had trouble in qualifying, and not having had the forks to try in that session, meant that I would have to use morning warm up as a test session, which obviously is quite a gamble. The forks went in and I found them to be a better choice.

Sunday - Race

Only an hour and a half later I took my grid position for the race. I will mention here, that turn 1 at Monza is extremely tight for even a few riders, without bottle necking 40 bikes in there, straight off the start. Those of you who saw the footage would know what happened. As one British newspaper quoted, “40 into 1 won’t go”. As the whole field ran into the first chicane flat-out, one rider hit another, triggering a massive incident.

As these two tumbled, more bikes were collected, including some that were in front of the accident, when the bikes spewed forward at speed, and to add insult to injury, another rider taking to the grass to avoid the carnage, couldn’t wash off enough speed and took out another two with him. 11 riders in all went down. This is certainly not something you’d like to witness too frequently. Luckily I just managed to avoid it. The rider that first went down was just off to my right, so it was a matter of getting through without getting taken out.

My start was good and I had already made up quite a few positions, so I didn’t hesitate in getting into it flat out, as soon as I got through the crash. As I came around after the opening lap onto the straight my board showed I was in 12th position. By mid race I had moved up into 9th and had a decent gap behind me. There was a pack of riders a few seconds ahead of me and I was pushing to get onto the back of them. It’s so hard to chase down a group when they are towing each other along. There were plenty of times where I used the entire track and then some, but try as I might, I had to settle for 9th. A top 10 result is definitely a step in the right direction and the time from the leader was 10 seconds better than Assen, which was the most pleasing thing for me.

Racing in this class is ultra competitive but we are moving forward one step at a time. The next round is at Germany’s Nurburgring in just over a month’s time. However we head back to Italy in a couple weeks for a test at Misano. Hopefully the extra track time will put us in a good position to be more competitive for round 4 and with any luck, bring home a better result once again. Standing on podium is hopefully getting closer with every ride!

Two short weeks went by after Round One at Valencia and we headed off to the Assen TT Circuit in the Netherlands. Every circuit in the championship this year will be new to me, and every country is another one to add to my list. I was looking forward to Assen, and planning on starting with a clean slate after a very frustrating and disappointing time at Valencia.

We got on a plane Wednesday morning in England and less than an hour later we touched down at Amsterdam airport. I’m finding it a bit surreal that just an hour’s flight away and I’m not only in a different country but a different language and culture. On arriving at the track we assisted with some of the set up and organization of the pits, so we would be ready for scrutineering and rider’s brief on Thursday. The scene over here is very different to Australia, but I’m learning my way around pretty quickly. Here you need pit scooters to get about the area its so big.

I was very keen to get into practice and learn the track. I was also feeling a bit anxious as the last thing I wanted was the problems we had at Valencia, so we started with fairly neutral suspension settings on the bike. Unfortunately I joined the Mist Suzuki team at the 11th hour, so my track time has been very limited and have not had an opportunity to get onto a track between meetings. Anyway UK tracks over the past month have been covered in either snow or rain. I did however get a few flying laps Thursday afternoon on Brendan Roberts rocket ship scooter, and we had turns in cutting laps with some of the other guys!

Friday - First Practice

The first practice at 9 a.m. Friday morning was not much more than a ‘learn the track session’ but at the same time I was trying to find a good feeling with the bike for the first qualifier in the afternoon. I stayed on the track for most of the session and came in only to make a few adjustments.

Friday - First Qualifying

After the session we made some larger geometry changes and hoping that we wouldn’t continue with the suspension problems. We made a little bit of headway with the changes for qualifying, so I stayed out on my old tyres for as long as possible, using the time to adjust to the settings and learn the lengthy track before putting in a new set at the end. I only got a few laps in on fresh rubber so my qualifying position of 31st was not at all desirable, leaving me concerned, as there was a chance of rain for Saturday so this qualifier may have well been where I was going to start the race.

Saturday - Second Practice

After having a good think about the bike Friday night, I needed to get onto the track again and get as much time as I could. Unfortunately this session turned out to be extremely limited. As the bike was being wheeled off the stand, we noticed a fuel leak. This put a big dent in the first part of the short session and just as I jumped on the bike and went to ride off it started raining. By the time we got the wets in and headed onto track, I only had 6 minutes of the 30 minute session left.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

For the qualifier in the afternoon, the circuit was dry, so I was anxious to work with the team to get the most out of the available time on track. I was in and out a fair bit during the session and was able to find a bit of time, by improving the basic setup. In effect, the qualifier was being used as a test session still, so I was trying to think about getting the bike sorted as well as trying to put a lap together. I ended up 28th out of a full 40 rider field. Times are so critical at this level, just a few hundredths’ of a second means numerous positions on the grid.

Sunday - Race

The time had come to get into it and put difficulties aside and push hard for 13 laps of the 4.55km Assen TT circuit. However before that we had one more large suspension change to try to the rear end before the race. Warm up was a less than ideal place to be trying that, but I wanted to attempt to improve things further, hoping we could find time in the race, luckily it helped me so I was keen to run with it.

Shortly after warm up was our race. The crowds were pretty big by then and the atmosphere exciting. I got a great start and quite a few riders parked it in turn 1 so I was lucky to be able to ride around these and move up about 10 positions on the first lap. I tried to make room where I could and push my way through and gain a few more positions on the brakes but I found running high corner speed a problem, which was really hindering us in practice and qualifying so I did what I could and tried to pick off as many people as I could.

I found myself in 16th fairly quickly. One certainty with this class, if you run wide or find yourself out of the seat, you can guarantee that more than one rider will slot their way back past. On one occasion about mid race I had a rather large out of seat moment in turn 2, and slipped back 4 spots!

I tried to ride consistently knowing where I was having difficulty and managed a 14th place finish. I tried hard as always and despite the setup trouble I’ve had with the Suzuki I feel I’m getting there, obviously the fact that everything over here is new to me makes it harder, but at least we are moving in the right direction. So upwards and onwards from here ! And I hope to achieve my realistic goals in the coming rounds and building confidence as we go.

Although I won’t be able to get to Monza before the next race meeting like many others have been able to do, we do have some testing planned shortly after that, so I expect to get on top of things then.

Before I finish up I’d just like to mention how good it’s been to have a heap of Aussies in the pits. The camaraderie between us is just like being back in Oz, probably even more so now as we’re all so far away from home.

A special thanks to Garry Crilly, John Chiodo and Justine from Monza Imports who have made arrangements for me to get a new AGV helmet delivered to the track within days so I had a European compliant helmet, it’s great to that that type of support from home.

I’ve been over in England now for a month, and the weather here has been rather brisk with peak temps during the day around 9 degrees. So I was looking forward to heading back to Spain ready to start fresh after my not so successful test. I couldn’t wait to get on the bike. This was my first round at a world event and I knew the pace would be hot straight off the bat and with limited track time I was hoping that with the help of Mike and the team that we could get the bike sorted.

Friday - First Practice

Friday practice was upon us very quickly after the tedious job of scrutinizing the bikes and getting the pits setup and ready to go. There was a lot to take in but with all of Thursday up our sleeves I got to know how things worked, my new team mate Matt was very happy to help and im looking forward to working with him this season.

We headed out with a new suspension combination in the first practice session which I immediately had trouble with, so I was in and out of the pits frequently making adjustments, even though it was only first practice it was an anxious time as I was trying to make use of every minute. With 40 bikes on the track there were a lot of people to contend for a line with! Before I knew it the checkers were out and it was time to pit and debrief with the team what information we had gathered and make changes accordingly.

Friday - First Qualifying

We had a lengthy discussion about where to head however for the second practice/qualifier that afternoon the changes we made didn’t really give us what we were looking for. Once again I can’t stress how hard the team was working to try and get it sorted for me. It’s great to be surrounded by people that want to achieve the best possible result we can come up with. It was a challenging day and used as more of a test session, but sometimes in racing this is how it is and getting things right doesn’t always happen first go.

Saturday - Second Practice & Second Qualifying

Saturdays schedule was somewhat as per Friday. With the first session of the day being practice and the second session the final qualifier. By this time I was getting to know how the team was working and we were all becoming a much tighter group. Getting to know the team is just as important as getting to know the bike really. As we hadn’t made a lot of progress with the bike on Friday I was hoping we could turn that around with some better results with the bikes setup. I realized time was getting slim and we were still having trouble getting everything working as I wanted too. Unfortunately time got the better of us and I ended up in 25th on the grid, less than desirable that’s for sure but Mikes outlook was very positive and the team was still trying everything to find a setting for race day.

Sunday - Race

For me race day came far to early, but nevertheless it was time to do my best with the settings we had come up with. I knew that finishing the race was of absolute importance here. Before the race I was quite stressed and I hadn’t been stressed at a race track for a long time, I wanted like any ride would to have had more time to get everything right but this is the way it is. Mike was very supportive and even 5 minutes before the race we were still discussing settings.

I lined up on the grid hoping that I could get a way to a good start. That way I could at least try and make up some positions before turn 1. I got away well and was 21st at the end of lap 1. My plan was to ride the bike as smoothly as I could and finish the race with making up as many positions as I could. But plans don’t always go the way you hope.

Before the completion or lap 2 I was on the outside of another rider when he ran wide pushing me out with him. I had no choice but to run it straight on into the gravel. I was lucky to keep it up right! The field was still very closely packed at this stage and I rejoined absolutely dead last with the next rider nearly a straight length ahead.

The day was really not going to well for me by this time. I had no choice other than to push on and finish the race and make up what positions I could. I finished a disappointing 31st. It goes to show that racing is not always fun and games and tough weekends happen. Mike and the team gave their best to me and I worked with them getting to know how they operate along the way. I cant thank them enough for giving me their best and I look forward to Assen where I really hope to turn things around and start fresh. I have a great bike that has lot of potential and a great bunch of people trying to achieve the best result along side me.

Thanks as well to Matt, my new team mate who showed me the ropes and got me up to speed with how the European meetings operate. I look forward to reporting back with some good results form Assen!

After arriving in the UK 2 weeks ago, I was eager to get on a bike and get some testing in before Round 1 at Valencia in Spain. Up until only a few days before we left Australia, it was our intention to come to the UK and ride in the R1 Cup, running in conjunction with the British Superbike Series.

However, we became aware of the Mist Suzuki team and shortly after speaking with them, we were keen to race the FIM European Superstock Cup aboard Mist Suzuki’s GSXR 1000 K8. We met with Mike, the team boss, shortly after landing and discussed testing with the team at Valencia. All went well and we booked our flights to Valencia the next day. I was looking forward to the opportunity to ride this series as it was fast tracking my goal, which was to look at this series for 2009.

We arrived at Valencia for the test and met my team mate Matt Bond. I was quite excited about getting onto the track and hopefully start getting the bike sorted for Round 1, only a week and a half later. I had no doubts that this was definitely going to be a hard task as I’ve never ridden a Suzuki and never ridden a European track before. So there were a lot of things to get right and not a lot of time to do so. Mike and Matt made me feel very welcome in the team and we were all eager to get the bikes sorted.

I got the basics in position and headed onto the track, keeping in mind we had 4 days to get it working, so a slow and steady approach would be the way to go. I spent quite a few laps getting a feel for everything and coming in to make changes every few laps, just to get the best possible feel for the bike and reaction to changes. Day 1 went quite well and on the last lap of the day I had brought my time down to a 1:41.7. I was happy as I knew we had a long way to go with the bike and with myself getting comfortable on it.

The following day we started out with a fresh set of tires and continued to change some geometry in the first session, however only a few laps into the second session as I came into turn 1, which is pretty fast, I changed my line to avoid some traffic, and I moved out onto some cracker dust that had been put down the day before after some oil was dropped. This resulted in a fast crash. The front just folded like I was on a wet track when I was almost straight up and down on the brakes. I end up deep into the gravel of turn 1 and surprisingly I didn’t really injure myself apart from a hyper extended wrist. The crash caught me totally by surprise so I was really annoyed and frustrated to see the new bike looking pretty messy. It was not great, but fixable at the track. Dad later informed me I did a 1.40.1 on that lap.

I didn’t feel good about this at all, especially as it was my first test with the team, but these things happen in racing and Mike and my Dad got straight onto getting the bike back together. Unfortunately my luck didn’t get much better and I wasn’t able to get back on track that day. The next day we put a fresh set of tires in to start the day, however when I went out we had a really bad vibration coming from the rear of the bike, especially around right hand corners. Finding this very strange, it took some time to eliminate a lot of possibilities, and we eventually found the tire to be out of round! How’s the luck. I understand this isn’t uncommon, although I have never come across it before. Out the window went that set of tires and in went an old set. I had one more new set left and one more full day so I didn’t do too many more laps in order to save tires until we had the bike feeling better. I had a lot of trouble getting a comfortable setup, my major problem being an almost complete lack of front end feel. We didn’t have the facilities to make an internal change so Mike and I persisted with what we had for this test knowing that we could make the necessary changes for the race round a week later.

Next day came and we didn’t get on track until around lunch time as the track temp was cold and wind was quite strong. We tried another geometry change in the afternoon and finally threw in out last set of tires when there was next to nothing left on what we had, this was a good exercise to get a feel for the Suzuki on worn tires.

Once again I headed out and found the vibration was back again. I came straight in and didn’t think it was possible to get 2 tires out of round. This time, not nearly as pronounced, but still there. Nevertheless I went back on track, put 2 more laps in and to my surprise broke into the 39’s. All in all, it was a very trying time, and with all things considered it certainly was not one of the best tests I’ve done. Mike was very helpful and did his best to get everything the way I’d like it. So I’m sure it will be onwards and upwards from here, and I’m very eager to get on the track and amongst it at Round 1. I’m confident of getting the Suzuki sorted to suit my riding style, and I’m looking forward to working closer with the Mist Suzuki team.