We arrived at Rockingham Raceway early Friday morning, ready
for a sunny weekend of racing. I had initially felt very confident going into
this round, following my earlier success at Snetterton the previous month.
However, the Friday practice sessions soon shattered this…
The first practice session of the day was a real eye-opener,
as I have not raced at this track in two years. I went out on the 1198 to get
to grips with the track and soon realised that it is a very different track to
ride on a big bike. Towards the end of the session, the engine management light
came on so I was forced to retire to the pits. Therefore, I rode the newly-built
1098R for the rest of the day to run it in.
Following on from the test day, I went into qualifying
feeling more comfortable with the track. I felt very strong from the beginning
of the session and, after my first flying lap, I set my fastest time.
Nevertheless, fate caught hold of me and I lost the front on the second lap and
came off the bike at Brook. I was frustrated that I came off so early into the
session and thought I would be way back on the starting grid. However, I came
back into the garage after the chequered flag and had only been pushed down to
5th in the GP1 group.
After talking to Chris Moore, the team and I decided to race
the 1198 as it was more suited to this type of track than the 1098. From starting
fifth on the grid for the first Saturday race, I got a reasonable start and
made my way through the first chicane in the same position. After a couple of
laps I got onto the back of Ben Scranage, who started the race in third, and eventually
passed him into turn two on lap four. The bike didn’t feel brilliant so I was
struggling to keep Ben behind me and with four laps to go, he got back past me.
He pulled a little bit of a gap and I thought it was all over until I saw the last lap flag come out; that’s
when I dug deep. I got back onto him with three corners to go and broke as late
as I could into the last complex, praying it would grip. I managed to get past
him as he tried to get me back but I managed to hold it to the line and take the win for the Superstock 1000 class and fourth place in GP1.
After a lot of feedback, Chris decided to make many changes
to the bike’s set-up so I went out for the Sunday morning warm-up feeling very
good. I was then extremely confident for race two of the weekend. As the red
light went out, I felt to have got a good start and found myself in third
position going into the first corner. As we went into Tarzan, I came up
underneath Scranage but on the way out, Mike Dickinson passed us both. I tagged
onto the back of Mike and we both managed to catch up to Pete Baker. Dickinson
soon passed him but I struggled and at every attempt, he managed to keep me
behind. Coming onto the last lap, Ian Mackman passed me with astonishing feat
which forced me into a somewhat considerable fourth GP1 position. Again, I
managed to win the Superstock 1000 race, with over five seconds difference
between myself and Scranage/Barnes.
Going into the third race, we made another slight change to
the bike. It was a manic first lap for me as I nearly got collected up in the
first corner but I managed to hold onto fourth position. As we came out of
Yentwood, Adrian Clark highsided in front of me, allowing Dickinson and Barnes
to pass. It took a couple of laps to regroup and truly get my head down. I
passed Barnes and Scranage on successive laps but on lap five, I hit my knee
off one of the kerbs and my knee slider ripped off. It was very difficult to
ride a really hard race without letting my left knee hit the track. However, I
still managed to pull a two second gap on Scranage and I managed to hold onto
it for the rest of the race. Once again, I finished fourth in the GP1s and
clinched that all-important 1st position in the Stocks.
Aside from falling off a couple of times, it was a really
good weekend’s racing. The gap between Scranage and I is now down to 45 points,
which is shaping up to be a very exciting end to the year.
I’d just like to say a big thanks to Alan and Charlotte for
all the hard work they do; my mum and dad; Louise; Chris Moore for being a suspension
guru; Steve Buckingham and Brad Cox, Acea and Ray Webb for doing my pitboard on
Sunday. Also a massive thanks to all my sponsors: Design Corse; Holroyd
Tyrewarmers; Putoline; Motoretta; Designerhelmets.com; Oxford Products; FSC Engineering and WM
Snell.
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