Friday - First Practice

After the testing we had done a couple of weeks ago, I think both Gareth and I were in the same mind set of being able to go straight out and be on the pace. We’d both been happy with the set-up we had and couldn’t wait to get out and get stuck in to things with the entire field.

As soon as I got on track the bike felt completely different. The bike just seemed to be running with everywhere and the front felt very light, with little in the way of feedback. It was an odd feeling so we tried a few clicks here and there to get it settled, but nothing really seemed to do the trick.

We made a couple more changes to get the front to bite into the turns, and we found some decent front end feeling, but we were well off the pace we had done during testing and the bike still wasn’t right.

Friday - First Qualifying

With a few words of advice and changes to the set-up thanks to Andreani the suspensions gurus, I was determined to get back up to the pace I knew I could run. We’d planned how to use the tyres in advance, so that wasn’t a worry, just how long the tyres would last however, that was a different matter all together, one we’d suffer through the weekend.

After a few decent laps I pitted to change the tyres, in then hope of using them during the last fifteen minutes to pull me higher up the grid. The track was feeling different to the morning session, lots more mid turn grip, but a lot less on the exit, making it very hard to get out and on the gas hard. Something we needed due to the front end problems we were encountering.

I managed to string some good times together and put in a much improved time, but I was still having some problems getting into the initial part of the turn, with the bike feeling like it was rising up and going loose. We used the last part of the session to improve bike set up as after six laps, the rear tyre was well and truly past it best state!

Saturday - Second Practice.

A change of springs was the biggest difference to the bike from the previous day, along with a small geometry change on the front end, done by lifting the entire front up, dropping the forks back through the top yoke by 4mm.

It made the bike more stable and more agile, and improved the turn in as well as the rear end grip, but the bike was still running on when entering turns, although to a lesser extent. I tucked in behind Rene Mahr on the KTM for a few laps and it helped me improve my lines in the mid section of the track, especially through the fast flip flop chicane towards the end of the lap. I was now turning later and harder.

Saturday - Second Qualifying.

It was all or nothing for last qualifying. Whatever the problems, whatever the obstacles, I had to just bite the bullet and get the thing out and round the track as fast and as hard as I could. This was the last chance I was going to get to move up the grid.

A few laps just to bed myself into things and then I entered the pits and put the new rubber into the bike. A few quick adjustments by Andreani just to hold the front end down and then it was back out on circuit. One out lap, three hard laps and then in, that was the plan.

The out lap was good with the bike feeling almost spot on, the first flying lap was good and then I decided to really push it on the start of the second fast lap. Turn one was fantastic, perfect line and faster than before, with a bit of a slide that kept going till I braked for turn two, which I got spot on, and then I was met by a wall of riders going really slow and debris everywhere as Matej Smrz had just obliterated his Honda. It stuffed that lap up so I rode into the pits.

I took a quick breather thought about where I had to push it and went back out, but after three quarters of a lap the tyre once again the went off and I had to battle to improve my time. I did but by a tiny margin and I found myself 31st on the grid. Not where I wanted to be. A second would have put me 20th.

Sunday - Race

I had only one plan for the race, to go forward and go forward as fast as I could and get with faster groups higher up the grid. Dive up the inside at turns one, two and three and then just see what happens when we get through from there.

I made a mediocre start, managing to get squeezed a bit too tight and boxed out but gained some places at turns two and three, and then settled in behind a couple of guys down the back straight. I made another place on the brakes at the back hairpin and then settled in an old rival of mine, Marko Rothlaan, with whom I’d had some excellent battles through 2007.

At turn three I slipped past Rothlaan and then fended him off at turns four and five as he tried to retaliate, and then tagged onto the rear of Jonathan Gallina on the ZX10 Kawasaki. I followed him and the group ahead for the rest of the lap, and was right behind Gareth when he decided to take the scenic route at the final turn, taking to the gravel at quite a fair rate of knots!

The next few laps were a bit of a blur with Gallina and myself swapping positions and paint at most of the turns on the track, while we battled to close in on the few riders ahead. I managed to get a small gap, but by the ninth lap my rear tyre was spinning everywhere, and I had to be cautious getting on the gas everywhere, allowing Gallina to close in once again.

The final lap was great fun, swapping positions at every corner with Gallina, getting up close and personal on more than one occasion! I managed to pass him at turn four, only to lose the front and have to hold it up on my knee, allowing him back through, at which point I thought it was all over. But I kept on him through the rest of the lap and just thought id try out-dragging him to the finish. My plan worked perfect, as I managed to get just enough of a tow a whipped past, taking 22nd place in the process.

A climb of 9 places from my starting position, and I was fairly happy, after what was a really difficult weekend for us. We made some great progress however, and the teams looking forward to Assen, which should suit our bikes a lot better! I cant wait for it either!

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!

Photos copyright © MotorBikesToday.com 2008

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.

After a successful test in Almeria I was looking forward to jumping aboard the new bike and seeing just what changes there were from the old machine to the new. I also couldn’t wait to meet my new team mate, Australian Gareth Jones, and his parents, Glyn and Gill.

Day One.

As soon as we wheeled the bike out into pit lane it felt different. The bike felt a lot lighter, sharper and more nimble. It was as if someone had completely removed the front end of the bike and just left a single strip of metal with some bars and a wheel. It was a quite odd feeling.

On track the prepared engines felt really crisp and smooth on acceleration and had a load of top end grunt also. The initial set-up on the bike wasn’t too bad, thanks to using the settings from Almeria as a base. A few tweaks here and there helped keep the bike settled on the brakes and turn in, and once the new performance friction pads had bedded in, the bike was stopping really well, and felt very stable.

After a couple of sessions it was apparent that the forks were at their limit, and although Gareth decided to put the new Ohlins cartridge items into his bike, I opted to stay with the standard set until day two. I just focused on the lines I was using and the reference points I was going to be using over the test weekend.

Day Two.

With the new forks fitted it was time to do some hard laps to get a feel for the new cartridge kit and to find a good setting from which we could work on and improve the bike.

The front end was noticeably different and gave loads more feedback and feel, especially mid turn at the apex. It did feel odd at first until the fork settled in and got some oil around itself, after this we just focused on getting it to travel the full stroke length and compress at the correct rate when braking hard.

We made a few more changes to the rear end to try and help the bike maintain side grip and also we raised the rid height just to help turn the bike faster. It put more emphasis on the front end of the bike as well, which was good as it helped me to carry more corner speed and hold a good line on the mid turn and exit of the tighter bends.

It was gutting to see Gareth hit the deck at turn one about half way through the session, especially when we’d both started going forward and posting some top lap times. I just focused on continuing our forward progress, and get a decent qualifying lap in for the afternoon’s “Open Race”, which would see all the fast guys out in a time trial event.

With a rolling lap starting the race it was a bit manic with riders n bikes all over the track on the opening lap and I just had to dive up the inside of some of the 600 guys entering the first turn. A couple of laps in and I had settled into a comfortable third place and began to chase down the two riders in front, one on Superbike and the other being Jonathan Gallina, who I will be competing against in a couple of weeks! I made a few mistakes and had to relax back into my rhythm and once done my times started to improve once again and then it started raining and I just pulled straight in, there was no point in risking falling in a fun race that didn’t mean anything to be honest.

Day Three.

With the weather back to the expected glorious Spanish sunshine of the first day I was keen to get in a large amount of laps and try some new set-ups with the ride height of the bike, with the plan to help keep the bike balanced, but maintain turn in and lower weight transfer from opposing ends of the bike, also.

The first half of the day went well with the new set-up taking a bit of time to get used to as it all felt too slow and unstable, but after a number of laps and a few more tweaks to the suspension we managed to pretty much sorted any worries I’d previously had.

Being higher up on the bike certainly helped improve the feel and feedback form both the front forks and rear shock, and it really reduced the weight transfer when braking hard. It meant I could brake later than before and still turn in just as hard, making it easier to ride the circuit, and helped make the lap times more consistent as well.

I spent the afternoon just focusing on my riding techniques to try and help me find out what I needed to do to improve my lap times. It was mainly standing the bike up onto the fat part of the tyre and firing out of the turns which were my priority. I gained a clear idea of how to do this after following Gareth for a few laps; it was amazing to see how different we each ride the bikes. I tend to run more corner speed, whereas Gareth tends to stop, turn and fire out. I guess we can both learn little bits from each other over the season!

Day Four.

The final day of our test was going to be used to further improve the set-up on the bike and also to push hard towards improving the best lap time I had already set. Some laps in the morning were fairly clear as many of the riders form the previous days had gone home, but some new guys had turned up for the track day and were extremely dangerous and very slow! I had some really close calls when they just decided to sit it up mid turn n pretty much stop on the racing line while I’m coming through at full pace! It’s not the best situation in the world.

Anyway, we still got in some useful testing and pretty much had the bike dialled in really nicely, after solving a few rear end grip issues. The bike was now turning good, holding the line superbly and had just the right amount of traction and spin when exiting the bends. The only problem we had been with trail braking and turning in while braking, but this was something we can resolve back at home, by removing a few mils of oil from the forks.

We put a new rear tyre in the bike and kept the 20 lap old front tyre in and just gave it three laps to go hard and see what we could come up with, lap time wise. It was really good, the bike felt smooth and fluid and despite the lack of front end grip and the problem with the brakes I posted my fastest lap, at 1.40.1.

It was really good, a big improvement over last year and now I just can’t wait for the opening round. It’s going to be good and I’m really looking forward to seeing and racing the whole new field of teams and riders. Ciao for now!

Friday - First Practice

It was good to get back to a track I know, and enjoy riding on, and I was fairly hopeful that it would go better than Donington. The bike felt good as soon as I got on it, despite the somewhat poor weather conditions. I just took my time and started circulating round, slowly progressing. I was happy with how it went towards the end of the session, despite being somewhat lower down the order than I wanted to be.

Friday - First Qualifying

With it being dry I was much more focused, and really wanted to put in a good time as it looked as though it would probably be the only dry qualifying we would be getting over the weekend.

The session started well, and I felt settled on the bike from the word go, but I seemed to hit a wall in terms of going faster and just couldn’t improve no matter what I tried and the consistency went AWOL as well. It just seemed like nothing was reducing the lap times.

I rode back into the pits, got some advice from the boss and then just headed out, focusing on my counter steering and working on consistency. With only one lap left I think I decided to just try too hard and it all went skywards, then ground wards, ending up with me on my backside. I can’t really remember the crash; I guess it’s a built-in mechanism I’ve built up over time! The rear came round, spat me off and I landed heavily enough to be winded for the first time ever and then I felt the pain in my hand hit me. Turns out I’d broken two bones in my left wrist and hairline fractured the last metatarsal bone. Didn’t know this at the time though, it just hurt!

Saturday - Second Practice

After the crash the team, consisting solely of my dad and Mike done a superb job of getting the bike rebuilt, albeit with a little bit of cleverly thought out workmanship and I was back out the next morning after some anti-inflammatory and painkilling injections.

I was told to take it easy and just focus on being consistent and exact with everything on the bike. Turn-in, braking, accelerating and lifting my head up being the main keys. It worked wonders as instantly I felt so much smoother, faster and more able on the machine. It was good to begin to really gel with the bike and it began to feel like I could actually make some good progress, which is what happened through the session.

Saturday - Second Qualifying

With it being wet there was going to be no point in really pushing for a good lap time as it wouldn’t alter the lowly placing I had on the grid, but we decided to use the session constructively, and again focus in on riding technique and developing the suspension on the bike.

A few quick adjustments on the bike worked wonders and I began to string together plenty of laps, and it all seemed to flow much more easily, making it a lot easier to pick up the pace. I was happy with how it all went, and felt good, despite the sometimes overwhelming pains I was experiencing.

Sunday - Warm Up

More injections early in the day, along with some handy laser therapy seemed to do the trick in morning warm up and it showed. My riding seemed much improved and noticeably more relaxed, and it reflected in the times I set and the position I found myself in by the end of the session 13th place speaks for itself really, and it just gave me the confidence for the race that I had lacked since Saturday afternoons crash.

Sunday - Race

I was fairly confident that a decent result would come despite sitting right near the back of the grid. Those starting lights seem awfully small from that far back I tell you. A few calming words from Mike helped and the next thing I realise we were away and racing.

I made a fairly mediocre start by my standards by within a few turns I began to pass people left and right. I made a real dive on three riders going into turn six, got past two and then felt a big whack. Whoops! Apologies to Frank Millet but I wasn’t going to wait around, I was felling well and in an aggressive mood.

I worked as hard as I could to progress forward and after finally passing the Ducati of former World Supersport rider Luca Nedog I got clear track ahead of me and ended up feeling really lonely as I couldn’t close in on the group ahead of me fast enough and had left the Slovenia a second or two behind me. Then out came the red flags.

Fortunately I reacted quick enough to avoid a severely bent MV and the marshals around it with an evasive maneouvre, should have been looking where I was going and paying attention really! I got back to the pits as quick as I can and asked for a dry rear to be put in the back of the bike as the wet had been completely chewed up in the drying conditions. Then it started raining again. After the delayed start we got moved around on the grid and no sooner had it settled we were all told to get the warmers off and restart the race.

On the restart I got away better and made some decent forward progress, I remember passing a number of people and then the pain started to come and by the final lap I was struggling to hold onto the bars. The vibration was killing my hand and I had to slow. I got passed by a number of people towards the end, but was happy to see the chequered flag. The bonus being I had made it up to 23rd, so was well chuffed.

The best bit of the weekend is the amount of progress forward in terms of the bike and my riding and can’t thank big boss Mike for that, he really did help out a lot this week. Hopefully the focus rolls over to Assen.

Right now I’m off to hospital and then to Brian Simpson to get this wrist sorted in what small amount of time we have.

Photos copyright © MotorBikesToday.com and Simon Bradley 2007

Photos copyright © MIST Suzuki Racing 2007

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.