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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

With the first two of our 2008 bikes stripped down as part of the build process and two test sessions planned for March everything seemed to be going smoothly for the race team. A sudden change of plan was required when the first test was cancelled at short notice.

Our friends at Racedays.net kindly offered us space on their Almeria test but given the short notice there was little we could do to prepare the 2008 bikes in time so we opted to use the spare 2007 machine that we had bought when we needed another engine back in August last year. We fitted our spare rear sets, bodywork, exhausts and steering damper, loaded it in to the van and set off for the 1550 mile drive to the South of Spain.

We were concerned initially as to whether the test would be worthwhile as our Ohlins fork internals, braided brake lines, clip ons, etc. had yet to arrive and we still hadn’t managed to source the Yoshimura ECU and other parts we needed to build a competitive SuperStock bike. Regardless even some time on a standard bike would be useful as Matt hadn’t ridden since the last round in early October 2007 and was bound to take some time to get back up to speed.

It was the first visit to Almeria for both Matt and the team and everyone was soon running through regular process for learning a circuit, defining reference points and other drills we go through. There were plenty of well known faces in the paddock to help with the Racedays MasterClass, a more intensive level of tuition from respected racers, including Leon and Ron Haslam (Factory Honda rider in British SuperBikes and ex-500GP respectively), Jeremy McWilliams (ex-British SuperBike, ex-500GP and ex-250GP) and Iain Macpherson (ex-British SuperBike and ex-World SuperSport). The class was fully booked so we had to work on Matt’s riding approach and techniques together as a team.

Rather than being out of practice Matt took to the new circuit quickly and after some advice on a couple of corners was soon picking up speed. The format of the Racedays.net event is plenty of Open Pitlane time coupled with a qualifying session and a variety of races to keep things interesting. Initially I wasn’t keen on Matt racing but it soon became clear the only way he was going to be able to learn from the instructors was to race against them I relented albeit it under strict instructions to stay our of trouble. I have to admit to being swayed by the fact that he qualified second overall just behind Leon Haslam and 1.4 seconds faster than Jeremy McWilliams and Ron Haslam.

We sat out most of the final Open Pitlane session to conserve our last set of tyres although Matt did a couple of laps following some advice from Ron on one particularly complex section of track where he was struggling to turn the bike fast enough. After declaring himself happy with the new approach to the corner and spending some more time talking through his lines through each of the corners it was time for the race itself.

Matt got away well and led in to the first corner opening up a small lead while Leon Haslam dealt with the traffic through the first few corners. Aside from a couple of mistakes a few laps in it took Leon until lap nine to catch up with Matt and he only managed to pass when Matt backed off approaching a backmarker on the way in to turn one. With Matt on his tail and both riders struggling for grip Leon led for the final laps with the pair separated by just 0.5 seconds after the 80 kilometre race with Ron Haslam some 30 seconds back.

It was only after event that we found Matt had lost his knee slider early on in the race when he hit his knee on a kerb. He bravely continued to race on and still got his knee down along the way. By the end it had worn through all the layers of leather and also the outer skin of the protective armour. He did say it felt a bit windy down the back straight so he knew that he had probably worn all the way through but kept on going regardless! I hope we can persuade Teknic to supply another set of leathers before the start of the season.

Leon was very complimentary about Matt’s riding and declared that had he not been able to pass when he did it was unlikely that he would have had enough grip left to attempt the same move later in the race. Obviously the team were delighted and Matt was very happy at having ridden a great race and having the ability to watch and learn from Leon at such close quarters. It was an excellent start to the season and everyone is looking forward to testing the fully prepared 2008 SuperStock bike at Valencia next month.

We were even more delighted when we found out that Matt had managed to get within 2.5 seconds of the unofficial SuperStock lap record set by the 2007 SuperStock Champion, Niccolo Canepa, on his fully prepared factory Xerox Ducati 1098 in testing before the season started last year. Matt was also faster on a standard bike than the then reigning British SuperStock champion Brendan Roberts, also on a factory Xerox Ducati 1098, at the same test last year although it has to be said that Brendan didn’t manage to complete the second day of his test due to injury.

With another test scheduled with Racedays.net at Valencia in March prior to the first race at the same circuit the question everyone is asking is how much of an improvement the addition of Ohlins suspension, Pirelli SuperCorsa Pro race tyres, Yoshimura ECU, quick shifter and quick action throttle will make to those times.

1800 photos taken over the season combine to form the above image.

Our plans for 2008 had begun to come together in the middle of the season when we agreed to run Matt and Chris again in 2008. We were soon joined by another South African, Sheridan Morais, who opted to run with us after a season with the well established Pedercini team. Even Suzuki South Africa were on board with support in the form of supplying bikes and other goods to help our 2008 season.

Everything looked rosy until the final round when we found out that the organisers only wanted teams of two for 2008. Doh! We did persuade them that having two teams of two was a good idea so we set about looking for a fourth rider.

Having spoken with a few candidates we began working out a deal with a rider we thought would fit well with the team. Not easy and a potentially difficult situation, having spent so much money to plug the hole in the 2007 budget, it was looking impossible to do a deal for 2008 despite doing my best to subsidise the cost, probably more than I should have.

I thought we had reached an agreement, or were close to it, as the deadline loomed only to get a phone call from the WSB organisers asking whether all my riders were actually riding for me after all. Rather frustrating to find that at the same time the sponsor that was enabling us to run Chris and Sheridan had pulled out.

In the space of one day our four rider team had been reduced to one rider. At least Matt Bond is still on board and F G Sport have been good enough to confirm MIST Suzuki Racing would be racing in 2008 with a two rider team in the FIM SuperStock 1000 class at World SuperBikes.

The hunt for a second rider is back on and preparations begin in earnest in January to buy, build and set up the bikes, buy and fit out the new race truck and embark on our planned testing schedule.

Oh, and somewhere in amongst that lot we need to keep on with our search for sponsorship as it is vital that we get as much track time as possible before the season starts and during the year.

Fingers crossed!

With contracts signed on time and commitment from Suzuki and Ohlins to deliver us the new for 2007 GSXR1000K7 before they were available to the public along with Ohlins making sure we would have the first 25mm fork internal kits and TTX36 rear shocks we were all set. Or so we thought…

With delays getting the GSXR1000K7 ready due to parts availability plus the World SuperBike organisers opting to add an additional date at Donington Park it meant things would be ready later than we planned and the first round would be much earlier than we planned. The GSXR600K7 had been available for a while but things were delayed waiting for the rider to pay the first installment of the money they owed the team before testing could begin.

The GSXR1000K7 arrived about six weeks before the first round but it was several weeks before the suspension arrived and could be fitted. With no bodywork available we had to heavily modify a fairing from an earlier model bike and adapt a seat unit from our 600 from last season. With less than two weeks remaining before the first round we went testing albeit with the stock exhausts and our temporary fairing.

By some bizarre coincidence our 600 rider was there riding an R6. Curiouser and curiouser. After confronting his Dad we were assured that they had no other plans and that they had been having meetings with sponsors and had one more planned in order to get everything sorted. It was a surprise then to see the same rider appear in the press announcement for the R6 Cup the following day. Mmmm, ten days to go before the first round and no rider. Yikes!

Arrow and the UK importer, B & C Express, did a sterling job of making us an exhaust and shipping it over in time for the first round. Well, it arrived on the Tuesday and we were due to be at the circuit on Thursday morning. The only bodywork we could get was from Sharkskinz in the US and that arrived on Wednesday.

We arrived at Donington Park, unpacked the bike and headed off to pick up the race awnings we had ordered. We managed to get the bike prepared sufficiently to pass scrutineering later that afternoon and then burnt the midnight oil to finish everything else off in preparation for first practice on Friday morning! The GPR Steering Damper was the very first in the country and arrived fresh off the plane on Friday lunchtime.

Hard to believe that it was only 2005 that Matt won the MRO MiniTwins Championship riding a Suzuki SV650 with 72 horse power. 2006 was his first year on a 600 and now we were moving on to a 1000 with 170 plus horse power. Matt has followed the same pattern ever since stepping on to the SV650. Three crashes right at the start of the season while he found his feet followed by a rapid improvement throughout the rest of the season. It happened on the SV650, the GSXR600 and, sure enough, the GSXR1000.

From the first test session through the first two rounds Matt racked up the usual three crashes, including writing off both stock exhausts, a rear wheel and, somehow, the rear shock! Not to mention breaking some small bones in his wrist at Valencia yet still managing to race and finish 23rd despite the pain!

Meanwhile the search for a replacement 600 rider was eventually solved with the signing of South African Chris Leeson. Chris was riding for the official Suzuki team at home and so despite a few rounds where he was required to race for them he was ours for the rest of the season. At the time of writing Chris just needs to finish in the points at the last round in order to win the South African SuperSport 600 Championship! For the rounds where Chris couldn’t make it due to riding in South Africa we gave young Scottish rider Alex Gault the opportunity to ride on the World stage.

Chris joined in time for the Assen round although the bike was still brand new and in the crate on Wednesday morning having just been delivered fresh from Suzuki. It was unpacked, had the road gear removed and the race exhaust system fitted, was run in on the dyno and had the suspension fitted by the end of the day. We arrived at Assen on Thursday lunch time and proceeded to finish building the bike that afternoon. Chris finished in 26th place around 48 hours later!

This may sound like everything was last minute and very disorganised but that is far from the truth. Everything was meticulously planned despite the lack of sponsorship and the large hole in the already miniscule budget left by the withdrawal of the original 600 rider. We really have to thank our sponsors for making the difference between putting together a competitive team and not going racing at all. Without Steve Jordan Motorcycles, S & B Commercials, Teng Tools, B & C Express and numerous other companies there is no way we would have been ready to compete yet alone be as competitive as we have proved to be.

With the team manager making up the shortfall in the budget out of his own pocket it is worth pointing out that MIST Suzuki Racing operated on around one tenth of the budget of the top teams in the SuperStock 1000 championship! The

The key lesson for the year is that not buying or budgeting for certain things is a false economy. For example:

• We had an engine drop a valve at Brno shortly after we had spent three days testing there whilst Matt was sitting in 12th place during first qualifying. Without a spare Matt was forced to sit out the race and the team was forced to purchase a completely new bike just to make sure we had another engine for the next round two weeks later.
• With a brand new bike everyone struggled with suspension set up over the first few rounds and our belated investment in bringing the Andreani Group on board for track side suspension support proved invaluable in speeding up our ability to find a good base setting.
• Not being able to test during some of the longer breaks during the season really hurt us in terms as getting back up to speed at the next round. It would take the first day for the riders to get back in the swing of things which meant other riders were already ahead when we knew they weren’t as good as Matt or didn’t have as good a package behind them.

* Cancelled race from Silverstone held at the Brands Hatch meeting to the benefit of stand in rider Alex Gault.

Now that the season is over and we can look back the consensus of opinion is that we did remarkably well given the problems we had. Matt moving from a 120 horse power bike to a 175 horse power bike was always going to be a big jump and the difficulties at being let down by our other rider really hurt us in both focus and budget.

We also suffered a great deal of bad luck including the engine blow up, electrical problems and a couple of tyres that proved to be very different to others of the same weekend which cost us a lot of development and set up time. I am confident that without some of these incidents Matt would have been a regular points scorer towards the end of the season but that’s racing.

The ups and downs of racing were demonstrated perfectly at the last round at Magny Cours. Chris was inside the top ten by the first corner and was then forced off the track and in to last place by the second turn. He then fought back putting in the same lap times as the podium finishers to finish in 15th place by the end of the race. Thoughts of what might have been are all very well but but our aim is to bring on young riders and watching Chris and Matt improve over the season has made it all worth while.

Perhaps more importantly, both FG Sport (the organisers behind the World SuperBike Championship) and other teams and riders were impressed with our professionalism, machine performance and overall impact as the largest British team in the whole paddock.

This bodes well for 2008 where we have had enquiries from riders capable of being championship contenders who believe we have what it takes to help them win races plus bike and manufacturers of performance parts who are looking to get involved with the team. We are also looking to focus on the SuperStock 1000 class which would allow us to run a larger team with the resources available to us.

An official announcement of our 2008 plans will be coming shortly. Watch this space…