I think it’s more than fair to say that on the run into Brands Hatch we as the HM Plant Honda team were well and truly on the back foot as far as the fight for the 2011 British Superbike Championship was concerned but it’s even more fair to say that I’ve never headed into a race weekend so fired up and positive about the outcome either!!!
We knew that nothing less than 3 wins was going to see us through and that even if I managed to pull that off there was a fair chance that the likes of Tommy and Hopperrealistically wouldn’t be off the podium so it was always going to be a long shot…
We found ourselves in exactly the same situation as the August round on the Friday morning i.e. with our fingers up our backsides doing naff all the whole day until about 3pm when we then had one 45 minute free practice session on the short Indy circuit.
That session came and went pretty quickly, 45 minutes to be exact ;-) We tried a few little bits and pieces including a new spec shock which had some definite positives as well as a few slight down sides, that said it’s pretty difficult at the best of times to just throw something at a bike that improves it with no negatives whatsoever, other than the shock we tried a couple of different engine braking and throttle connection maps that Chris had come up with and a modification to the rear swingarm and to be honest I was pretty happy with the way things went, my pace was pretty good and it was obvious that generally things machine balance wise had improved since we were last here in August.
I was well excited to get out on track on Saturday morning, even though the schedule meant things were going to get pretty damn hectic there’s no circuit quite like the Brands GP circuit!! After 3 or 4 laps I pitted to make some changes and we tried another shock which had gone even further in the direction we’d already been working in which seemed to be another step better, the balance thing I mentioned earlier definitely seemed to be an improvement even on the faster and blinder sections of the long circuit so that really pleased me.
The free practice sessions seemed to come and pass very quickly but then I guess being half an hour long that was always likely to be the case, we made a few more steps rear shock wise but were struggling to find a healthy compromise with things, one thing our HM Plant Honda definitely is is sensitive to small changes!!!
Sheene curve...gotta love it!!!
For the 1st of the qualifying sessions we knew we only needed a race tyre not a soft one to go through and used exactly that, I actually used that 20 minute session to try a couple of extra small changes in order to improve some of the problems we were having on corner exit, the problem was the tiniest of changes took the bike from a little too soft to a little too firm, the latter making the bike lack grip and wheelie a little bit too much.
For the second qualifying session we reverted back to the slightly softer shock spec and banged in a soft tyre, I was pretty confident that I’d be able to pull off a good time but started my lap a bit too close behind Martin Jessop so I had to abandon it before the long circuit, I had a steady rest of the lap, found some space and then went for it, the lap was going pretty good, Paddock, nailed, Druids, nailed, Graham Hill, nailed, Surtees, Hawthorn…. It was looking good, I got a good run through Westfield and a real good drive off the apex but that extra drive pushed me a tiny bit wider on the exit than usual, I could see the concrete dust from an earlier blow up but could tell that my line would only just touch the edge of the dust and with the rest of the lap being so good I needed to keep it lit, as I got onto the edge of the dustthe revs rose rapidly, the bike snapped sideways but then when it gripped it flicked me straight over the bars, that’s a pretty big high side tobe fair, on it flat in 3rd, maybe 120mph, I don’t recommend it ;-) as I bounced down the track the bike gave my left hand a bit of a whack and as soon as I got up I contemplated whether or not I’d broken anything, both hands hurt to be fair but the left one properly hurt. Typically with the one bike rule and a trip to the medical centre qualifying once again hadn’t gone at all to plan, that said if I got away with no broken bones I reckon that’d make me a pretty lucky guy!!
The medical centre confirmed shortly after that nothing appeared broken however my hands or wrists should I say are pretty messed up so making any sense of them whatsoever was pretty tricky!!, the guys from the physio centre strapped my hands to help take theswelling down and I went to see the boys to see how the bike was.
Fortunately there wasn’t too much drama with the bike and the guys got it fixed up however unfortunately any further setting changes we had planned had to be scrapped because that was it now before the start of the Saturday race which due to my crash I had to start from 19th on the grid for!!!
Out of Surtees towards the long circuit, awesome place!!!
I knew things weren’t exactly with us if you know what I mean, whilst I felt confident of a strong result it was going to take nothing short of a miracle to get the Championship wrapped up but as far as I was concerned there was still a chance and I intended to give my absolute all regardless.
Starting that far back at Brands is always a bit of a nightmare, generally speaking if you get through the first 3 or 4 turns your fine and you can pick your way through but it’s so easy to get caught up in other peoples mistakes, I got a pretty sensible start to be fair but ended up in amongst the carnage for the first few turns, the bike was feeling ok but something wasn’t quite right…. I bullied my way through to about 7th I think but I seemed to be having an awful lot of problems A) getting the bike turned in and B) leaning on the front tyre, as the race wore on this problem got worse and the trouble was that to pass anyone especially the quicker guys the only way is to out brake them and run in hot but the trouble was on about 5occasions I did this then completely lost the front and lost the place again, I was getting so annoyed but there was nothing I could do, I eventually got the better of Kirkham and Rutter to end up 6th but I wasn’t happy, the team were well pleased with coming through from 19th but like I’d said to them all weekend the one thing the bikes done well all weekend is steer and typically come race time I lost my strongpoint, after the parc ferme I asked the guys to check the front tyre pressure and sure enough it had lost a load of pressure….gutted, no ones fault but it had just made our long shot at the title slightly longer, nothing less than 2 wins Sunday would do now….
Morning warm up was wet/damp, because of the conditions and the risk of similar forecast for later in the afternoon rather than going for a full wet set up I had Chris just back off the bike a bit from dry settings so that I could try riding the bike like that and then hope that as the track got more damp than wet the bike would start to get better, after just 2 or 3 flying laps though it was pretty obvious that the bike was far too hard, this was cool in a way because it gave us some information but at the same time in the interest of staying on the thing for warm up I had to make a pit stop to back everything off a bit more, with only 2-3 minutesremaining in the session I headed back out onto the track in the hope of getting 1 flying lap, I rolled down into Graham Hill and gently picked up the throttle but the bike immediately flicked sideways and launched me straight over the highside again, no warning no nothingjust a big get off and walk!!! I came down pretty hard on my hands and knees which I needed…not, the parts of me that were sore from the day before hurt even more now….great!!!
After the horrible conditions and the crash in warm up the track had dried a fairbit come race time, that said there were still plenty of properly wet patches that I noticed on the sighting and warm up laps!! I sat on the grid this time starting from P3 and said to the guys bloody hell, I don’t fancy leading this bad boy for the first few laps trying to suss the job out, I think I’ll leave that to one of the others… sure enough the lights went out and by turn 2 who was in the lead…. Bugger!!!
I got presented with a tribute helmet to my new daughter before race 1 Sunday. Thanks Shoei!
I made a few massive mistakes trying to suss the best way around paddock but at one point I’d built up a 3 second lead so every time I made a mistake I just tried to relax and roll with it, a bit later towards the end of the race somebody started catching me and the gap came right down but with 7 or 8 laps still to run I didn’t want to hit the panic button so I maintained my pace but then with 3 or 4 laps to go I pulled the pin and tried and managed to start dropping 2nd again to eventually win by about a second and a half, after the race I saw it was JK so fair play to him, he rode well because those conditions weren’t easy at all, that race gave me the fastest lap so Pole position for the final race, like I said earlier, nothing less than a double…..
Do you know it felt pretty good sat there in pole position for the final race of the year but I was also totally devastated, you see the reason being I for some reason hadit in my head that if I won both races theoretically I could still win the title, I spoke about it after the post race interviews too but I got a look at the points whilst sat in my pit box preparing for the second race and it was only then that it had hit me, I got told about all the guys crashing etc and heard that Hopper went out but what I wasn’t told was that he got restarted and actually finished and took a few points so from there on in all I could do now was finish 3rd, my mission was in effect over and we failed.
I got a good start and got through the first few turns unscathed which was cool and from there on in I just went for it, not so much every lap balls out just every lap consistent and making my apex’s etc perfectly, my lap times were pretty good but i had a bit in the bank too should I need to crack on at any point but in the end there was no need as the gap just kept getting bigger and bigger, it’s not very often you get a race as straight forward as that I tell you, eventually the gap stretched out to over 5 seconds and during the last 5 or 6 laps every time I rode back to Clearways and could see the crowd I felt such strong mixed emotions,
This happened about 5 laps from the end of race2, that was close ;-)
sure I was happy to be leading, having the time of my life riding and seeing so many people waving and cheering but inside the other part of me was like a broken man, all I kept thinking was why did MLav and I collide, why was Silverstone beyond a total disaster until Sunday morning, this could’ve been me then, leading from the front and taking that 3rd title I so badly wanted, on the approach to Clearways on the last lap I switched all my electronics off, looked at all the crowd, left my bike in 3rd gear and pulled a big stand up wheelie right the way around towards turn 1, it was like my way of saying sorry to all of those that were cheering, we won the battles that day but unfortunately we lost the war…
Battles won, war lost :-(
After the race behind the podium I was pretty down, feeling like all that hard work all season had gone to waste and then talking to Hopper almost made things worse, he told me which I never knew at the time that if the points had been in a normal format I would’ve been champion by 5 or 7 points or something, right there and then it was like a bit more of a kick in the nuts but I pretty quickly got over it and felt positive about things, maybe in my own little world I am the champion, as are HM Plant Honda, after all we scored the most points over the season and all that and I think it’s something to be really positive about going forward, not too bad for someone that can only ride a Ducati…..
The scenes on the podium were absolutely magical, I want to thank each and every one of the people in the crowd that cheered so loud for me, it made everything feel so much better, I also want to take this moment to congratulate Tommy Hill on becoming the champion, the boy’s done an awesome job this year and well deserves the title for all his hard work and never give up attitude, congratulations also to his Swan Yamaha team, this was a big year for Shaun Muir and the boys.
I think now’s a good time to offer my thanks to a number of people for helping me along this year, from everyone involved in the HM Plant Honda team especially my crew chief Chris, my engine builder/ mechanic Nick, my other mechanic Tom and our tyre guy Phil and my team boss Harvey, to all the guys at Feridax Uk for my excellent Shoei helmets especially Paul for his awesome service and Steve Clifford for putting the deal together, to all the guys at Alpinestars for my suits, boots and gloves, to William and the guys at Stobart for all their continued support, to Science in Sport for all of their backing, to all the guys at Corley cycles, especially Phil, to Sean Dines at Mavic for both all the product and the training support throughout last winter and this season, to Harry and all the crew at Respro, all the staff at MSV especially Stuart Higgs and Laura, to all the marshalls and medics etc that keep us safe, to all of you guys for the massive amount of support you’ve shown this year, to Reggie for keeping the motorhome and all my kit immaculate to my wife, blimey this list goes on and on and there's bound to be somebody or some people that i've forgotten!!!!!
Moving forward there’s not a great deal to say right this minute to be honest, Honda have offered me a deal to stay with them for 2012 should I choose to have another stab at BSB as has Birdy and there’s a few other options in BSB too, there’s also a couple of potentially interesting World options which could pan out pretty cool, all in all it’s looking like we’re in pretty good shape going forward which is cool.
For now though I’m hoping to take a week or so off, my body feels pretty bashed about, I went straight to my physio Monday morning to get loosened off and I still hurt a bit so a bit of rest, a few phone calls and we’ll see where life takes us over the next couple of weeks, once again massive thanks to everyone and I’ll keep you posted as soon as I have some news, take it easy guys and girls, Shakey #67
