Green fingers!!!

Blimey, i didn't think i'd ever see the day where i wrote to you guys to tell you i'd been gardening, the way i see it i have a good excuse, some of the guys from my team had a fever at the weekend and i seem to have come down with a mild case of man flu, in fairness things seem to be improving because i'm feeling better again today but i reckon that's because it's obviously gone to my head, usually the only two things i go through my garden for are my garage and the swimming pool but today i got right amongst it green finger style, chopping palm trees, clearing weeds, i was there, what a ball ache it is though, can't see myself subscribing to gardeners monthly anytime soon.

Assen races....

Yet another overdue race report i know but this one's for a good reason, I've been bloody gardening all morning ha ha!!!

Seriously now, lets fill you guys in what went on...

It all got off to a pretty bad start to be honest, the week started with Petra being stranded in Canada due to the volcanic ash, then when we finally got her home only for our flights to the UK to be cancelled, after then driving to the UK to collect the motorhome we got as far as Dover before the motorhome died and lost all charge in the batteries so a call to Midlife got a temporary fix on that then i think despite leaving mums at 5-30am we finally rocked up in the paddock at Assen around 9-30pm, a long old day to say the least!!!!

Anyway enough of all that, i was really looking forward to riding the new layout of the circuit which had already shown the track to be around 2 seconds a lap faster when Johnny Rea tested there, the new section was definitely an eye opener, shit, flat out to the rev limiter in 5th gear roll the throttle and peel in, god knows what the entry speed is but it's properly fast!!!!

Free practice and provisional qualifying all passed without any major dramas, we were in reasonable shape although not quite as close to the pointy end as usual but we were far from panicking, in the free practice session before Superpole we made a big break through in terms of the setting of the bike, we basically stiffened everything up a bit as i felt that lap times wise we were pretty much at the limit for the softness of the bike but immediately in practice the bike felt loads better so we fired in a pair of tyres that were to be our chosen race tyres and did a longer run to see how the durability would be and it went mega, i did lots of fast laps and ended up doing just over 3/4's race distance whilst still turning out good and i mean good lap times, to say i was quietly confident inside was an understatement!!!

I know i seem to say it every weekend but all we needed was a bit of luck to get through Superpole, i did a flying lap in the first session on new race tyres that ended up being more than good enough to go through, in fact i think it was my fastest lap of the weekend, a 1.35.8, after pulling that out of the bag on race tyres that inner confidence doubled and i wasn't thinking hmm, maybe Supepole 2 i was thinking, we could be up for Pole here or a front row at the very least..... however it wasn't to be, i made a mistake on my first qualifier and pulled a 1.35.9 and then in the final session we used the last one and it was absolute toilet, i knew from the exit of turn 1 i wouldn't be able to go quick as i pinned it on the ext and the rear started to spin real early meaning i had to roll the throttle for the kink before the long right turn 2 0r 3. I ended up doing another 1.35.9 but it was only good enough for P7, nevertheless 2nd row so it was still all to play for.

Morning warm up the following day was bizarre, we exited with two new tyres albeit the rear not the compound we'd be using for the race and i pushed for a couple of laps but the rear felt crap, i came in and put in a used version of the one we'd be using for the races and immediately went P4, it wasn't until after warm up had finished that my Engineer told me that it was the tyre that had done the 15 laps run the day before so that inner confidence went right back up again, bring on the races!!!!

Race 1, what can i say, it started ok but from the get go it was obvious there was a problem, i absolutely rode my heart out but couldn't do anything, the rear tyre was crap, it spun on the rim a bit and had so little grip that i couldn't flick the bike into tighter turns quick as the rear of the bike kept coming round on me, the race for me was a total disaster, i was around a second a lap slower than the run i's done the day before and i was pretty pissed by the tie i got back to the box, the team weren't happy either but like i told them, this ain't bulls**t, check the data, you'll se exactly what the problem is and sure enough they could see so we regrouped and planned our attack for race two.

We changed a couple of little things as the problems we'd encountered in the 1st race made the bike work in a different way but for race 2 the rear felt a million times better, i got another half decent start and was running on the back of the front group but pretty much immediately i had a big vibration problem, i'll be 100% honest with you i couldn't figure out what the problem was, i didn't know if it was the front brakes, the clutch, the front tyre it made no sense at all but basically every time i closed the throttle and took the brakes the bike would vibrate like mad to the point where i started missing apex's and making mistakes, the only good thing was that it was pretty consistent so i semi knew what to expect and where, after a bit of a battle with Biaggi i got my head down to get back in touch with the group again and was catching up but i braked for turn 1 and got a little bit more vibration than i'd anticipated so i had to run on straight, from that point in it was just a case of push to the max but bring it home which i managed to do albeit down in 7th but much much closer to the front in terms of time. the team were much happier but when i explained my problems they looked a bit baffled, it turned out that one of the bolts that held the engine in place had broken and every time i closed the throttle the engine was moving and that was what was causing the problem, once they'd seen the problem they were gutted for me but equally pleased that despite the problem we were real close to the front.

Unfortunately Assen was another somewhat typical weekend, we need some luck, if any of you guys know where i can buy some i'll pay top money for it, ha ha!!! It's all good though, we'll go forwards now and on to Monza which could be difficult for us but straight after that we've got a good run of tracks, i'm really confident things are going to turn around soon and can't wait to give my tea, you guys and myself plenty of results that we can all smile about!!! Talk to you soon, Shakey #67

Valencia races

Another well overdue update i know, but, hey better late than never right...?? I thought i'd give you my view on the Valencia weekend and how it went down for me, to be honest, something you'll see me say on here quite often, i really was looking forward to this race, preseason testing went incredibly well despite two days turning into just half a day so i was full on ready to go despite the fact Valencia used to be my WSB equivalent of Mallory park!!

Thursday morning i went out cycling with Cal Crutchlow which was good fun, he's a funny kid and always has some amusing stories to tell, we did 30 miles together outside of the circuit with a few climbs and then finished off with 3 or 4 laps of the circuit, like i said, all good fun!!

Onto more serious riding, Friday morning came as a bit of a shock, as i said the test went well but with the bike set identically the difference in track temperature made it feel a million miles away, we plugged away and worked hard on one set of tyres to be sure we improved the bike step by step rather than just throwing tyres at the job so it was all good.

In the provisional qualifying session that afternoon things got marginally better initially, we continued working on a set of tyres and were making progress but being on the wrong end of the top 10 wasn't what i was hoping for at all, however, towards the end of the session we fired in a set of softer tyres which were to be the same as the ones i'd probably end up racing and immediately went P1, easily, bloody hell i thought, there i was in a flat spin wondering how they were all going so fast and all i needed was to put these spec tyres in and that was it, job done, with about 10 minutes remaining in the session we made a few more changes as the tyres had helped a lot but also brought with them a few other little problems so we ended up slipping to third but hey, i'll take that!!

Saturday morning went really well, we started the session on the same set of tyres of the day before to get some laps on them and then went back up the order a bit with fresh tyres, the bike felt fantastic and i was really happy despite dropping to P4 at the end of the session, bring on Superpole i thought, i'm right up for it......

That to be honest was where it all started to go wrong, for the warm up session prior to Superpole i went out feeling great, we put a new pair of tyres in to basically try a longer run but within two laps it was obvious there was something wrong, the bike had real bad chatter on the rear, no grip and the front tyre felt square, hmm, not what we need, i didn't even bother staying out and came straight in, i explained the problems and the guys fired in another new rear tyre, this was marginally better but i was still having big dramas and was about a second and a half to 2 seconds off what i'd been doing that morning. Within about 3 laps i was back in the box and this time the guys changed the clutch, they could see on the data the problems i was having but we were struggling to get to the bottom of what was causing it, another two or three laps proved the problem was still there but we were running out of time, the guys checked over the bike 100% and were fairly sure the problems were caused by the front tyre, the only trouble was the next time i'd get to try it was the 1st Superpole session.......

I went out fingers crossed thinking right come on Shakey, we can do this, front row front row, i pushed full gas on my flying lap but the lap time was crap, a 1.35.1, i'd done a 34.2 that morning on the same tyres, not great, the following lap i really hung it all out to pull a 34.7, still half a second off what we knew was possible but with that i took the gamble to sit in the box and hope, fortunately i made it through to the next session albeit in last place ;-(

As you can imagine i was more than a little relieved to get through and was desperately hoping that things would improve in the next session when i got to use the 1st of my qualifiers, unfortunately it didn't, i did another 34.8 on race tyres but could only manage a 34.2 (my race tyre lap time form the morning) which left me a very very unhappy 12th, not good.

Morning warm up was pretty steady, i pushed obviously but concentrated really hard on riding relaxed rather than tensing up like i had in Superpole, i was still feeling pretty good about the races although starting from the tail end of the third row was always going to be tricky.

As the lights went out in race 1 i didn't get a very good start at all, too much wheelie and a 2.9 0-60 did me no favours at all, however after a couple of moves i the first few laps i'd got back to where i'd started and noticed that nobody was really getting away, i kept my head down and was on the back wheel of Lanzi and Fabrizio when Michel went down, Lanzi took a real tight entry to turn 6 so i swept out wide to try to get a run on him on the exit then the next thing i know i was on my arse sliding towards the gravel, the most annoying thing about it was that the data showed i was actually 2kph slower when i crashed than the lap before, gutted..

For race two i was determined to make amends, not that my start would show that, another shocker did me no favours at all, to be honest after the normal 1st couple of laps of pushing and shoving it was all over, the red flag came out due to Simon Andrews crash so it was back to the box to do it all over again in an aggregate race, great..

In the restart i never got such a bad start but it was the 1st couple of turns that made the difference, i immediately settled in in about 6th or 7th and things were looking good, i caught and passed Johnny Rea which was good but Leon Haslam had already pulled a couple of seconds on me and despite holding the gap i couldn't catch him back up, on the track i ended up finishing 5th which means my first top 5 of the year but on aggregate i got 8th which i was pretty bummed about.

I'm glad we got things turned around a little by the end of the weekend but this time i really can't help but wonder what might of been had we not have had the problems on Saturday afternoon so i know now we'll go onto Assen feeling good and feeling strong, that rostrum can't be much further away now, i'm gonna be pushing full gas training wise to ensure i'm in tip top condition come the weekend so lets keep our fingers crossed, thank you to all of you for your continued support, our time WILL come, take it easy Shakey #67

Leading the pack of Rea, Toseland, Crutchlow, Guintoli and Smrz, i held em off to the flag!!!

Bit more practise and i'll master that knee down thing i'm sure of it!!!!!

Portimao...

Well, as you can probably imagine, 2 race meetings and 2 100 mph highsides were far from what i was hoping for after a fantastic pre season test schedule but unfortunately that's what i've had so far, let's be positive though, at the end of the day 6th and 7th from Portimao was far better than 10th and 12th or whatever it was!!

I was really looking forward to getting back to one of my favourites circuits to ride, finishing the preseason test there in 3rd was great but to be honest we were quite a way off being really comfortable there with the new bike and since the tests we'd made a fair bit of progress with the set up of the bike. I was actually really happy once we got underway on Friday, for the 1st free practice session we made a real good plan and stuck to it thoroughly, basically we had two different types of front forks and two different specs of rear shocks to try, along with that and some slightly different engine management settings that we never got the chance to test before, we stuck to the plan like glue and used just one pair of tyres to get through all the work so to finish 12th and about half a second off was no drama at all.

For the afternoon qualifying session we carried on with our work combining the best bits from both bikes and working out a good setting, i'd be lying through my teeth if i said i went all out for qualifying, after Australia's escapades the last thing i needed was another big crash so P7 for me was more than ok, that combined with the fact that we'd found a really good direction for the Saturday morning free practice, we were on it, less than half a second off pole and feeling really comfortable.

Saturdays improvements were obvious immediately, within 4 laps i'd gone P1 and was feeling good, i had a few little moments though that i hadn't been having before but then again my rhythm was quite a lot faster so that was to be expected, i'd just done my fastest lap of the morning so far and knew the lap i was about to complete was real good too, as i peeled into the final turn in 3rd at just over 100mph everything was good but then as i touched the gas on the side of the tyre the rear let go, no no no no i thought as it came right around in what seemed like slow motion and then as if i had a catapult up my a hole up i went, initially i thought it's ok, i've got it, i've got it but as i came crashing down back on top of the bike i missed the bars and down i went, sure bouncing along the track at 100mph hurts, rolling through the gravel doesn't do you many favours either but when i came to a standstill or lay still depending on how you take it i didn't stay put so much for pain but for utter devastation, i was so gutted that this had happened to me again, i was like why me... funny thing was which just goes to show how lucky or unlucky depending on how you look a look at it was that quite literally the only thing any different whatsoever was being about 20-30cm wider when i got on the gas than the lap before, the speed, braking, taking the throttle, amount of throttle taken was all identical, spewing!!!!!

I decided to sit out the rest of the remaining 20 0dd minutes of the session, luckily i was in far better shape than i was after Australia but giving myself a bit of time out seemed like the master plan.

Much to my relief everything was absolutely fine on the bike that afternoon, of course i was a bit sore to say the least but immediately i was fully back up to speed, and faster!!!

I'm gutted about the way Superpole went, we thought it was going to be difficult to get through the first knockout using only a race tyre because the times were so so close but we pulled it off easily, in the 2nd session i matched the time on the same rear race tyre and needed just .3 or something to go through so we fired in the first qualifier and off i went to bang out a pretty average lap albeit my fastest ever lap around there to go P2, I really really thought we were in with a real good shot at Pole after that lap, as i said it was far from tidy and i still had another tyre left for the final exit.

The team and i chose to wait a second then exit on the new rear immediately, bang in 2 laps and see where it takes us, as i said i was right up for it. As i started my first flyer i had a few little moments that i put down to trying too but by the end of the lap i could tell it was more than me making mistakes, the grip just wasn't there, i came round fully expecting a crap lap, sure enough it was nearly half a second off of the scrappy lap i'd done before, i tried one more but that was even worse so P7 it was then.

Morning warm up went incredibly well, sure P7 never looked special but for some reason the rear tyre we were due to put more laps on developed a problem so i did the session on the hardest rear we had and was real real fast considering.

So with that we had our plan for the race, the only thing we hadn't done due to the Saturday AM crash and losing out on putting laps on the rear in warm up was to find out how the bike would work over full race distance, oh how that would cost me......

As the lights went out in race one i got a fairly sensible start, i settled down in around 5th but after a couple of laps i got up to 3rd, the problem was Leon and Max were a couple of seconds ahead and despite my best efforts just about matching them was about the best i could do and as the laps wore on that got more and more difficult, basically my bike was set mega for a fast lap but unfortunately as race distance wore on it started to get harder and harder to maintain my lap time, eventually i dropped to a disappointing 6th but as soon as i got back we had a plan for race two, fingers crossed then.....

Basically for race two we stiffened up the bike for race two, after looking at the data we could see the problem was that the bike was too soft, i got another ok start and ran in the top 5 or so but after just a couple of laps i was sliding a lot more than race one, basically the stiffer setting took away some grip, i was really frustrated, it was one of the longest races of my life because i just felt like i couldn't do anymore, either way like i said 6th and 7th is a big step in the right direction.

Although Portimao turned into a somewhat frustrating weekend i'm really excited about Valencia, it was there in the test that we made a bit of a breakthrough and i'm gonna be on a mission training wise beforehand to ensure i'm in tip top condition for the races, the master plan has to be to stay on the bloody thing that weekend and try to start fighting for the podiums i know we're capable of, lets keep it lit and talk soon, take it easy, Shakey #67

A shot from Portimao, i like this photo!!!!