MIST Suzuki Racing

Gareth Jones, 09/05/08 - 11/05/08
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
Round 3

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!

Matt Bond, 09/05/08 - 11/05/08
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
Round 3

Friday - First Practice

This was to be the first test for my shoulder following treatment from Brian Simpson, and I was hoping it would be good and stable throughout the weekend.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to even see if it was okay on the brakes entering the first chicane as the motor when bang at the end of the very first lap! I was gutted to say the least, but I made it back to the pits, so I didn’t have to walk too far back to the truck!

Friday - First Qualifying

The first qualifying was my first chance to get a decent set-up and test myself, so I just took the session steady, gradually building my pace and just feeling what the bike was doing and what needed adjusting.

I did the simple three lap routine of out lap, fast lap and in lap. It worked well as it really helped me focus on what was going on and what reference points I was using. It helped me re-learn the track a lot faster also, even if I was struggling to get a few parts sorted.

I changed my lines and markers pretty much each time I went out on track, and really only started to find some consistency towards the end of the session, but I was pleased with the times and how the bike was behaving, and only needed a small gearing and suspension adjustment ready for Saturday.

Saturday - Second Practice

The changes we made to the bike really improved things, making the bike a lot easier to ride, via less gear changes through the tight and twisty sections and also improved handling through the faster sections.

A few more tweaks through the session managed to resolve the chatter problems I was having in the fast sections, which gave me a lot more confidence in the front end of the bike, enabling me to fell more in control and smoother with my riding. The bike was feeling good, and seemed to be doing what I wanted it to, without too many problems.

I began to push to see how late I could brake and how hard I could turn, and although I ran on a few times, it was beginning to come together a lot better. I caught a few tows around the track and it helped me gauge where I needed to improve and also showed me how. I made a few adjustments in terms of line at a couple of turns but otherwise it was good.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

I was going to have to push it to get further up the grid, and I knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially with my shoulder starting to become more and more painful, but once again the team got the bike even better than before and I felt much better straight away.

The plan was just to get out there and follow everyone and get a tow throughout the session, there was no way it would be easy but I knew I had to just push it as much as I could.

Halfway through the session and id knocked a fair wedge of time off my previous best, but the rear tyre was starting to go off and after a few scary moments I decided to get the new tyre fitted for the last third of the session, in the hope it would give us the time we needed to move forward on the grid.

I didn’t get a good tow from here on and had to work extra hard on my own, and I made another improvement in time but not as much as any of us had hoped, and I kept making silly errors trying to push it harder and harder. I saved front end slides at the Ascari chicane and Parabolica curve, but only through trying too hard, not through being on the edge, and I was fairly deflated by the qualifying result. But, having less track time than all the other guys was the main reason I was struggling, coupled with a completely standard bike, it wasn’t a million miles away from where I wanted to be come raceday.

Sunday - Race

I got my shoulder heavily strapped in preparation for the race, as it had by now become a hindrance, but despite all the problems I was just focusing on going forward in the race.

I got a decent start and was heading forwards until I saw a big cloud of smoke and backed right off, just as the carnage occurred entering the first chicane. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t think it would be that hectic! I just picked my way through the debris and fallen riders and then set about getting back the places I’d lost in the mêlée.

By the end of the first lap I’d got into a group of guys I remember being a fair bit higher up the grid than I was so I knew I’d gone forward in terms of places, and tried to make a few more on the brakes at the first chicane, but noticed the waving yellow flags, so backed off, with a plan to make the places at the next chicane.

It didn’t happen, but what did at least got me some TV coverage! I can’t really remember what happened, but I just remember suddenly speeding up while braking and not being able to avoid Danny De Boer. Next thing I can recall is trying to get my breath back and wondering where I was!

Apparently I’d been hit from behind and had no-where to go but into De Boer. I felt really bad about it, but as it wasn’t my fault I was told not to worry. I was really gutted to have crashed out of 17th at the time, I’m certain we’d have been well in the points and I was feeling great before the incident. At least I know we’ve got the bike almost all the way there, and my riding is getting back up to standard, so I’m pretty confident for Nurburgring in a few weeks, as long as my body has repaired by then! Back to Brian’s again for some magical body fixing!

Matt Bond, 25/04/08 - 27/04/08
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup
Round 2

Friday - First Practice

With the new suspension fitted thanks to Richard at Ohlins GB along with a new quickshifter thanks to Gareth at HM Quickshifters, I was really looking forward to getting out and going forward form Valencia.

The bike felt a lot smoother and more stable on turn in, but was running wide and not inspiring much confidence in the front end, plus a somewhat damp surface on the circuit wasn’t the easiest of conditions to deal with. A few quick adjustments to the rear shock solved most of the running wide problems, but the front was still not how I wanted, feeling far too soft.

Three turns of preload were added to the front to enable me to brake harder and later and also run higher corner speed. It helped, but was a turn too heavy, and thus I reverted to just two extra turns.

I managed to get in one flying lap when the track was reasonably dry, and it was a fairly improved time from the previous laps, and faster than I had managed last season, by just a couple of tenths.

Friday - First Qualifying.

A few extra tweaks to the rear shock and a new ride height setting were the big changes made for the first qualifying session. A small gearing change to help pull through the gears faster through the back section was also done as revving out wouldn’t be a problem for us.

I focused on just pushing at every turn on every lap, and slowly but surely started to improve my lap times with each tour of the 4.5km long circuit. Turning later and harder and standing up on the gas earlier and applying the throttle sooner were the main focus points. I was trying to brake later and harder also, but this area proved to show little improvement as I was already late on the anchors pretty much everywhere!

A small off and excursion down into the middle chicane was the only major moment I had all session, and I returned to the pits soon after for new rubber and a quick adjustment to the front of the bike. I was fighting to turn the bike and keep upright as the front was severely overloading and tucking mid turn, especially on the slower, tighter turns at the start of the lap.

With new tyres the problem persisted, but with only three flyers I managed to knock another second off my previous best, despite having no tow. I tried a few different lines and turn in points but with the front end not wanting to go where I needed it a major improvement in lap time was never going to happen.

Saturday - Second Practice.

After the problems from the previous afternoon the team raised the front of the bike and also made some rebounded damping changes, in hope of more traction and drive through the slow bends, and more stability mid turn from the front.

Out on track the bike felt much better, smoother, faster and easier to ride. I was only able to get one out lap and one flying lap as the heavens decided to open just as I entered the final section of the course. I immediately entered the pits as the two riders in front of me jumped off!

We softened both ends of the bike to aid grip and traction in the wet conditions, but it still took four laps to get some heat and grip into the tyres, but my confidence grew and grew with each tour of the circuit. The lap times were dropping by around 2 to 3 seconds a lap which was a real positive sign.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

Thankfully it was dry for second qualifying, and with the new front end settings I was a lot happier and confident that the bike would be good enough for us to improve the lap time from the previous sessions.

Straight away the time I had done in the previous session was bettered, and I felt a lot faster, although the rear of the bike was very unstable. It was sliding all over the place and I was out of the seat at every turn, while the whole bike was still doing a two wheel drift! It was a big problem on the slower corners, where the hard acceleration was very unsettling.

I nipped into the pits and put a new rear into the bike, thinking this would cure the problem. It didn’t. The bike was still going sideways rather than forwards, and although I made a huge improvement in time, it was through pure balls that I actually went anywhere! I was power-sliding out of all the turns, and although it was looking good, it wasn’t the fastest way, and I was fighting the bike all the way.

My session was ended early when I had a hug high-side out of the final chicane, and landed with all my weight on my right arm, popping my shoulder out of place. How I stayed on two wheels I’ll never know, but I was on the grass when I got back upright and the pain seared through my right arm at such a rate I had to tour it back to the paddock.

We needed more grip from the rear before we were going to go any faster, initial throttle made the bike step out and when upright it just smokes the rear and leaves big black lines. Once we get this sorted I’m sure we’ll start going forward.

Sunday - Race

We got the bike fairly well sorted during warm up, but my shoulder was still proving to be a problem, so although I was pushing I couldn’t really go full out. I got it strapped more heavily for the race however and was certain it would be better.

I had a couple of plans ready for the opening few turns, fortunately I only needed to put the first one in to action, that was to just go in fairly wide and hold my line through the whole of the first complex. I managed this with the obligatory elbows-out-fairing-bashing, all the way through!

I made a few places up by the end of the lap and told myself just to hang on to the group ahead for as long as possible and hoped my shoulder would hang in there. The first few laps were awesome, the bike felt good, I was holding a great pace and was starting to get into a rhythm. I was able to hold my line properly and get on the gas early for the first time all weekend, and I felt confident with the front of the bike and was able to put it where I wanted. But no sooner had I started to get going and my shoulder suddenly just went and the pain became apparent.

It was a struggle for me to brake hard and turn fast, making the chicanes exceptionally difficult and like torture to my arm and shoulder every lap. The fast sections where the circuit flowed were okay as I could use my legs to help turn the bike, but where I needed to counter-steer was where my problems lay.

I had some great battles with a few guys, and pushed as hard as I could to stay ahead of them or on their tails, and was surprised at how well I coped, despite my fitness not being 100%. I must admit I was glad to get round the last lap. Any more laps and I don’t think I’d have been able to keep hold of the bars!

To come home in 21st, equal to my best result in the class, and gain 12 places from the grid, with my problems, was a real confidence booster. I’m really happy with how the weekend went as the team and I have made some excellent progress and things are starting to look really positive for us. Now I just can’t wait for Monza, a.k.a the cathedral of speed! As long as my shoulder is sorted I reckon we can have a good qualifying and an even better race!