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Busy Few Weeks
Well it’s been a busy few weeks, first of all round 2 of the National Superstock 600 series was held at Oulton Park over the bank holiday weekend and after a great first meeting I was looking forward to getting back out on track with 45 other 16-25 year olds just as keen as me! Sunny and clear skies meant that the worry of which tyres to use was not a problem and I could just focus on bettering my times over the two qualify session, which I did by three seconds. However the rest of the field was just as progressive as me meaning that a big battle lay ahead of me on Mondays race.
The fact that the 600’s are straight after the first British Superbike race only adds to the pressure and that seemed to show on the first few laps of the race in which a large amount of overtaking, fairing bashing and crashing took place meaning if you can manage to say on a gain some positions you are doing well. After the initial madness settled down I got into a rhythm and started counting off the laps, with three or four riders a few inches off my tail piece. I was able to hold these off and began to gain on the riders in front getting passed another four over the course of the race however I realized that my boot had been dragging on the ground so much in the mid-corners that it had worn all the way through leaving my toes feeling the wind and at times almost the track! Having to tuck them in to keep them off the ground slowed me down a little but I was still able to catch and pass one more rider on the last lap on heavy braking in to the incredibly banked 108 degree hairpin Shell Oils. I was relieved when I saw the flag, both for my good result and the fact that I still had all my toes.
Following this I was off to Cadwell Park for the next NGRRC meeting where I was looking to get some good results and improve on my second place in the championship. On and off rain all weekend meant that we were changing tyres constantly and in most cases making the right choices taking a thrilling win in the first 600 race making a pass in to the penultimate corner on the last lap even though it was quite damp and I was on full dries, it was a great feeling to get my first win of the year and get into the lead of the championship. Sundays race we went with wets and after a great start I unfortunately hit a false neutral and collided with another rider, I was luck to stay on and had dropped back to sixth, despite some good overtakes on the early laps including a pass into the massively steep downhill left hander of Mansfield where the bike slid around quite a lot I was only able to get back to third. Overall these were good result and I am happy to now be leading the 600 series, I also competed in the Open class and got a 5th and a3rd which was great considering the majority of the field were on 1000cc bikes.
It has been a great few weeks and now I have just a few days before its time to prepare for the next National Superstock 600 round which is to be held at the Donington Park World Superbike meeting.
