Race Report

Gareth Jones, 03/10/08 - 05/10/08
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
Round 9

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, 03/10/08 - 05/10/08
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
Round 9

Friday - First Practice

To be honest with it raining, yet again, I didn’t feel overly confident, but knew that I just had to get on with it, and be smooth, precise and consistent. We had a fairly good base setting for the bike, and made only a few changes to accommodate the features of the circuit.

I began the session pretty much tip-toeing around, just getting some small amount of confidence back in the bike and my riding. It was still hard to get rid of the vagueness of Donington out of my system. After a few laps I settled in well, and put together better times lap after lap, pitting every three laps to make some adjustments to keep the bike feeling how I wanted.

By the end of the session all was fairly good, and I was just outside the theoretical qualifying time. It was a matter of 0.1secs, which I had easily obtained with my ideal best time.

Friday - First Qualifying

I opted for some softer spring’s front and rear in the bike, only half a kilo at both the front and rear, to help the bike squat and get some feeling mid turn and on the exit. It felt much better and took only a few laps before I’d bettered the time I done in the morning session, despite worsening conditions.

The rain was coming down hard so I pitted and made a few more tweaks to the bike, with the idea of getting more grip from the front of the bike, thus enabling higher corner speed and less need for hard acceleration mid turn.

It initially felt like a negative change, but after I changed how I was riding it felt a lot more positive and progressive and I just stayed out on track putting in laps, and making myself push small amounts everywhere. Mainly entering turns I was making myself release the brake earlier and on the exit, being more positive and aggressive with the throttle, but maintaining a smooth roll on.

It was about three minutes to go when I pitted for the final time as the rear tyre had pretty much given up and was sliding more than I was comfortable with, and not wanting to risk a fall I called it a day. I was pleased to have knocked a further four seconds off my time from the morning and had qualified, all be it in 32nd, but I was still on the grid if it was worse the following day!

Saturday - Second Practice

It looked like being a dry session, but then the heavens opened for a short time and we went back to the wet settings from the previous day, with the only change being a softer rear spring.
It took me a few laps just to get settled and I put in one flying lap before realising how quick the circuit had begun to dry. From then on we used the practice as a test session, doing one lap before pitting and making more changes.

We found a good set up by reducing some compression on the front and adding a touch of rebound, all in which helped with holding the line, especially on the faster parts.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

Finally we got some dry weather, and it was going to mean having to go hard from the start, something I had previously had problems with, but I just got my head into the zone straight away and focused on doing a couple of laps to sort reference points and from there out it was push everywhere.

I didn’t get into a good group on the first few laps so did a ride through the pits, just to get some space. I got in one clear lap before pitting and making changes to the rear of the bike and also change the rear tyre. I also made a change to the preload on the front of the bike to help with stability on the brakes.

The changes helped, making much easier to keep on line and also helped keep the spin controlled on the exits. It all meant I could get on the throttle a lot earlier. I strung together two good laps and then slowed to get a tow off Foray. I managed to stick with him through the first section really well, and only lost a bit in the second section but I made a big mistake entering the fast Nurburgring chicane, running wide and losing a good second. I had tried to brake where Foray did, and I simply couldn’t halt the bike in time.

It screwed up what was on target to be my best lap, but I was glad to know I could have gone much faster, and I was still 26th on the grid, so I was in the mix of things, and only slightly slower than when we tested earlier in the season.

We had a good idea of what changes we needed for the race, and if the weather stays good I know we are on for a great race.

Sunday - Race

Thankfully it was dry and I knew that the small changes we made to the bike would make a big difference, making it hold the line better and also more stable on turn in. It felt a lot better in morning warm up.

I got an okay start, taking the outside line at both turns one and two and also at Adelaide hairpin, at which point I just hoped, like everyone else, no-one made a kamikaze manoeuvre! Fortunately everyone made it round, unlike last year!

I settled into a good rhythm fairly early on, but by lap three was being held up by Ten Napel, and I was desperate to get by as I could see the group ahead getting away. I finally got through entering the last turns. Once through I got my head down, and was closely followed by Peter Hickman, who was doing his very best to get by, at almost every turn.

At the middle of the race I’d began to close down the group ahead, and could feel myself getting closer to them, then Hicky decided that he wanted to do the chasing, and we spent the next two laps swapping places and paintwork!

After the halfway distance our battle had allowed the group ahead to get away and Pauli Pekkannen to close in and make our dice a three way affair. It was great fun and we each took turns to lead, be middle man and tail of the group, with us being three abreast at points.

The last lap was manic, and tries as hard as I could, I simply couldn’t slot by the pair of them and make a move stick. I was gutted, but also chuffed at having a great race just on the edge of the top 20. I also started to feel back to being confident on the bike and have a really good bike set up ready for Portimao!

Matt Bond, 05/09/08 - 07/09/08
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
Round 8

Friday - First Practice

Just like last season the opening practice was soaking wet, although this year it was slightly warmer, even if the puddles on circuit were slightly larger! The track felt like it had a lot more grip than last year also.

My opening laps were pretty good, smooth and consistently improving lap after lap, as I tried to find the best line and sort out my reference markers for braking and turn in. It was very similar to all the points id use in the dry, just with a lot less aggression.

I pitted just to make a few adjustments to the rear of the bike to help it grip on acceleration and it seemed fairly positive after we made the change. I didn’t get much chance to try it however as a few turns later and I was sliding down the track on my backside.

I’d high-sided out of Redgate and although I tried to save it I couldn’t and ended up facing the oncoming traffic. I picked the bike up but it was too bent to carry on and I’d slightly tweaked my shoulder again which began to hurt a few minutes after. Luckily the bike wasn’t as bad as first thought and the team got it back together in no time at all.

Friday - First Qualifying

The rain hadn’t gone away, and neither had the winds, which were now stronger than the opening session, especially down the lower end of the circuit by the old hairpin and Schwantz curve.

I started well, feeling confident in the bike and in my lines, with the bike giving good feedback thanks to a softer spring in the rear of the bike. It gave more traction and when accompanied with the new engine map, provided more drive. It was noticeable out of the Melbourne loop section, where the bike would now pick up and carry the front wheel.

I made a few more changes to the bike in the pits after completing three laps, just to get the front end to give more grip and a better feel, done by softening up the compression and taking a couple of turns of preload off.

It felt a lot more positive on the out lap and through the first sector on my flying lap I posted the ninth fastest sector time, only to fall for the second time of the weekend on the entry to MacLean’s turn. I’m not sure exactly what happened but again after picking the bike up it was apparent it had rolled over and thus I couldn’t ride it back to the pits. I hadn’t qualified at this point because of the crash.

Saturday - Second Practice

I was feeling a little bit beaten up after the previous day, and I just wanted to get round for the session, for all our sakes!

It didn’t start well, with the tyres stone cold I just couldn’t get any feeling, and it soon became apparent my confidence had taken a bigger knock than I first thought. I just focused on trying to be smooth and progressive and not do anything silly, unlike the last two sessions! The bike began to feel good and better than before, but with my relative lack of pace I was still struggling, and it seemed that no matter what I tried, I didn’t go that much faster.

It was a frustrating session, but I stayed on and got some good feedback for the team, ready for second qualifying in the afternoon.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

I was going to have to dig deep to get through the session and get in a decent time to get on the grid. The track was drying, but still wet enough to command full rain tyres, so it was just a case again of being smooth and building it up.

My first run made me feel a lot better. I’d gone a lot quicker than all previous sessions and was settling into a nice rhythm. I pitted just to make a few small changes to the bike to help on turn in stability.

I got back on track and just told myself to keep calm, relax and just ride. Next thing I know, I’m sliding down the back straight on my arse after another high-side. I remember swearing at myself and just saying “That’s it”, knowing it wasn’t going to be enough for me to qualify.

I was in tears when I got back to the truck, knowing what had just happened, and was mentally beating myself about, it wasn’t good, but I felt like I’d let the whole team and myself down. Fortunately the guys understood how much I’d struggle and just put it down as a bad day at the office.

Sunday - Race

It was only the second time I’d ever been forced to watch my race from the sidelines, and once again I was gutted not to be out there, but without a good enough time to qualify and realistically no bike to ride, it was just one of those things.

After a good night sleep and watching the race I’d calmed down and forgotten about the troubles. It’s the first time I’d ever had that bad a weekend, and for once, I just let it all go. I’m just looking forward to Magny-Cours and Portugal over the next couple of months. Fingers crossed it stays better and I get back up to where I know I can run in the field.