Holy shiiiiitt!!!!!!

Don't know about you guys but I tend to just kind of float along doing one thing or another totally content 99% of the time then there'll come a point when something will happen that kind of jogs your memory or makes you take stock of whatever situation you find yourself in then all of a sudden you're like, oh shit, I didn't do this, I haven't done that, I was meant to call such and such and so on and so on, well, basically I tried a second ago to log into Dropbox to recover some photos form a phone I lost and couldn't log in because of an invalid e mail address so to cut to the point I tried to log into Blogger using the same address and like I just mentioned I realised I hadn't done.... a Blog since Brands hatch, oooopss!!!!
To be perfectly honest with you there's not really been a great deal to report, those of you that follow me on twitter @67shakey or on Facebook 67shakey will know pretty much everything that's been going on anyway.
Obviously the main thing that's happened is that I resigned for the Rapid solicitors PBM Kawasaki BSB team and that's something I'm truly really happy about, it's the first time in my career that I've ridden for the same team two consecutive years and I personally see it as a massive boost in my quest to become the all time most successful BSB rider in history. I had the very fortunate opportunity to have a great guy who spends shit loads of his own money saying to me Shakey, you just tell me what you want to do and whatever you choose I'll back you 100% but please just have a ride on my CRT bike before you make your decision, not easy being me lol!!!! Unfortunately the opportunity to ride the CRT never materialised due to the weather at the Valencia test but both my heart and my head were leaning towards the BSB side of things anyway, after all, I had a good bike, one that we know with another winter of development we can improve quite a bit, a fantastic team and a great competitive championship to race in which every weekend when I line up on the grid I know I'm in with a good shout of at the very least a podium finish and that ladies and gentlemen is what I go racing for, of course I understand that by racing in the UK I'll never achieve my goal of becoming a World Champion but I'd far rather fight for another title in BSB than fight for a point or two in MOTO GP or a top 5 or whatever in WSB, don't get me wrong, I truly believe I could fight for a title in WSB but nowadays in that paddock it's becoming increasingly like MOTO GP where only the top bikes are capable of winning, I mean look no further than probably the greatest rider of all time's last two seasons and that's with a manufacturer who have a remarkable eyebrow raising amount of money to play with.... I rest my case..
Anyway, moving on, last week was the Motorcycle live show up at the NEC in Birmingham, it was a good show, I had a lot of fun and met some nice people which was good, next week we're off to the Czech Republic for a bit, we're off to see the in laws for a few days then they're gonna look after the kids for a few days and I'm taking my with to Praque for a few days to a real nice spa hotel so we can finally totally wind down after the season.
It's been a weird year this, if I'm honest which to me there's no point not being this is the first year ever that I've taken a bit of time out after the season finishes, you could probably count the amount of times I've trained since the season ended on both hands but I've just wanted to rest and heal up a bit, I worked so hard this year getting back to fitness after the shoulder injury and then with the stress and pressure the whole showdown format puts you under I made it, I won and then I stepped back and relaxed, that's not something I'm particularly good at though as I like to keep busy.
I brought myself another Harley recently, a Sportster 48, they're making 2013 models with a Gold metal flake tank on and after getting my championship winning helmet in the same colour and always fancying a 48 anyway I figured now was as good a time as any, not only that my other Harley is down at Shaw speed and custom being tricked up to the absolute max, and I mean the max, in fact they contacted me the other day about the bike going to a bike show in Italy and maybe the London excel show when it's done so its obviously gonna be pretty rude if they're thinking of stuff like that for it, I can't wait but in the mean time if the temp ever gets above what feels constantly like minus 20 then I have the 48 to cruise about on!!
I've got a meeting pretty soon with an ex Olympian who may be helping me with some training ideas for the winter to get me in tip top condition for next season which will be cool, my approach will be the same as this year it's just that I want to make even more effort and cover even more bases, a 4th title would mean the world to me and that's what I'm 110% focused on trying to achieve, come along and enjoy the ride!!! Take it easy guys and girls, lets catch up again before Christmas, Shakey #67

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems that every time I write one of these Blogs for you guys it starts with a sorry for taking so long sentence etc etc so I feel it entirely appropriate to start this one the same lol!!! Sorry it has taken me a week or so to write this but I have to confess I was more than a little fragile all day Monday after Brands it has to be said and to be honest the rest of the week has been a bit of a blur ever since, to be fair though it was for a good reason – I won the 2012 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship for the third time winning all three races in the final weekend!!!

After the penultimate round a couple of weeks ago at Silverstone I just got away for a bit with my wife Petra and the kids to the Czech Republic and had a fantastic time chilling out for a few days, then though as soon as we got back it was bang on the training ready to be in the best possible shape come Brands Hatch ready for the final Showdown. I completely avoided the track for as long as possible as I’d really chilled out yet I’d really pushed hard training wise and I wanted to spend as much time at home chilled as possible as the weekend ahead was fairly important to be fair!!! Thursday came though and with it a day of filming and media interviews etc which kept me pretty busy and then it was game on!

Friday started a bit iffy as the track was drying out after some rain earlier on so I waited a bit before heading out, bided my time then headed out to just do some laps to bed the brakes in without going too crazy. I followed Josh Brookes my main title rival for a lap or so and he was definitely hanging it out, with the track being wet/damp in places he was being way to brave for a Friday morning for my liking because those kind of conditions are the easiest in the world to fall down in but I didn’t want to risk a stupid crash in the first free practice session so I thought you crack on mate!!! As it was the track pretty much dried out by the end of the session and I finished the session more than comfortably fastest so it was all good!!

The afternoon session was about spot on so the boys in the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki garage decided to try a few things on the bike that we’d thought about after the August round, we had some ideas that we thought would help suspension wise but with only a 40 minute session when my initial feeling wasn’t quite so good we reverted back and concentrated on the direction we were working in previously. 

We knew qualifying was going to be important and we did a good job in practice so much so that we went faster in the third practice session than we did in the qualifying, however we’d done that good of a job concentrating on being sure we’d be strong over a full race duration that my outright lap time was only good enough for P2 on the grid for race 1. We knew it was going to be three long, hard races and that Josh, Alex (Lowes) and the others would be up there so I went out knowing that I simply had to treat each race like all the others this year and get out there, get amongst it and fight for wins, nine points wasn’t much of a buffer when there were 75 up for grabs!!

In the first race I got a really good start, a really, really good start, probably one of my best this year in fact, I lead and initially started with a pretty steady pace, it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying just that the lap times weren’t that good and because of it my pit board kept saying +0 for what felt like forever, I tried to control things for a bit and got my head down and a gap came so I just concentrated real hard on managing it, then to make things even more tricky it started to drizzle with rain, I thought 'oh no, what next’ so I tried to keep going as it wasn't that bad in the beginning, I knew that we had an 18 lap race and that 2/3rds race distance needed to be covered before the race would be declared a result so I was trying to work out in my head how many more laps we needed to complete so that we wouldn’t have to start again, on the final lap before the red flag it got real bad, I knew I had to get it stopped as it was really slippery and I hoped we’d done enough laps for it to be declared a result and fortunately it was. It was a great result for the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team but I knew we needed to do it all again in the final two races on Sunday.

On Sunday I knew mathematically I could win the championship in the second race, I needed to win and Josh had to finish lower than 2nd but hell, it wasn’t going to be an easy one. It was a tough race and it was a bit frustrating to have two safety cars intervene, the second one was worse as it slowed it down a bit too much and the tyres lost a bit of temperature so when I started to get going again the bike felt a bit loose and I thought the last thing I needed was to throw it down the road. I settled down and watched the gap and tried my best to maintain it. Funnily enough before that I’d got into a bit of a pickle because for obvious reasons I have certain names of riders on my board, but then I had another number appear on one line and then I realised it was Barry (Burrell). I knew if Josh was third it would be job done, so I hoped he stayed there but in the end Josh and Michael got ahead of Barry meaning the Championship would go right to the final race. I would have liked to have wrapped the job up in up in that 2^nd race but knew also that the last race was going to be fun for us as baring a disaster.

The final race of the season was amazing. I started 5^th on the grid so 2^nd row which wasn’t ideal but again I got a fantastic start and slotted in behind Josh, he set a real fast pace and following him was absolutely perfect as I just used him as a reference, I was fairly sure that the pace he was doing he wouldn’t be able to maintain right until the end of the race so I just hung in there and enjoyed the ride, I was happy following and to a certain degree I was happy with 2nd but at the same time I knew I wanted to win the championship in style and the red mist came down and that was it, I knew I needed to go for it, I saw my chance on the penultimate lap after seeing Josh starting to lose a bit of grip and that was it, bang straight into the lead. To cross the line and win the race, the championship in front of such an amazing crowd left me speechless for once!!! I am ecstatic. It would be cruel not to have tried for the win as it has been such an incredible season, in those last three or four laps I kept thinking of all the hard work my boys have done and I thought right lets do this!! I was really emotional. I have to thank everyone, the team, my family, the fans for what has been a real rollercoaster season and to the other guys, we have had some great races this year.

Like I’ve said before the final round, I want to become the most successful rider ever in the championship and last weekend I moved a step closer to achieving that goal. All I can say was that it was an incredible feeling and I have to thank everyone for their support, 2 more race wins sees me become the all time most successful BSB rider in history which is cool but whether or not we stay in the championship remains to be seen as my boss is incredibly keen for me to take part in the Moto GP championship so we need to sit down at some point and discuss my future together.


Right now what I desperately need is time to recover from the party, to chill out, take a nice holiday somewhere sunny then see what the next step will be.

Thank you all so much for your support, I’ll keep you posted when we get some news but for now, kick back, relax and enjoy the last few rounds of Moto GP, that’s my plan so lets see where we go from here, take it easy,

Shakey #67

Silverstone..

To say that I arrived at Silverstone fired up is a bit of an understatement, 5 days previous I'd arrived at Assen not really knowing where we were at whatsoever and came away with a 1st and a second place finish, I don't want to keep repeating myself but if you'd said that would be the case the week before I would've laughed at you!!!

Having Monday off after the race to relax and let my achey body chill out a bit was the perfect medicine, then Tuesday Wednesday hard sessions in the gym and the swimming pool had me feeling good and more than ready for the challenge ahead, to make things even more positive I'd already competed in the Silverstone 200 races so I had a bit of time over my rivals there, we meant business!!!!

Let's start with Thursday afternoon, MSV arranged for the 6 title fighters to get to drive around the circuit, the full circuit not the little ones in their Nissan GTR's for 20 odd minutes each which was a cool experience, I really enjoyed my time in the car and it put me in an even better mood for the upcoming weekend!!

Friday morning though and things started to go a bit pear shaped, I literally managed an outlap on my bike when the dash fired some warning lights at me that I hadn't seen before so I had to pull straight in, the guys got to the bottom of the problem but by the time they had some light drizzle came down and pretty much ended everyone's session.

Friday afternoon was where it really went wrong and I mean Really went wrong, obviously having only done an outlap in the previous session we started on the same set of tyres, I did an outlap then started my what I call my build up lap, turn 1, fine, into the next section fast left, fast right, tighter left, tight right all no problem at all but then immediately I changed the final change of direction for the run out onto the back straight and no sooner had I leant left again the rear of the bike snapped round and threw me up in the air, I kind of managed to stay on the bike but with the slide happening so early in the corner I was on top of the thing but heading diagonally towards the tyre wall at a pretty rapid rate of knots, there was no way I was going to A get stopped or B get turned enough so I had to bail out, I actually came off reasonably unscathed, we weren't sure if I'd broken a bone in my hand as it swelled up pretty good but the medics took good care of that but the bike, well, that was a whole different matter, in a match between the tyre wall and the bike it was most definitely tyre wall 1 bike 0...

Saturday morning I got out and was really happy just to manage a flying lap, bearing in mind the boys had done 2.07's the day before my first decent flyer being a 2.10 or something daft wasn't cool at all, nevertheless we worked real hard through the session and continued improving and finally got down to a sensible enough time to end the session well in the top 5, far. From happy but a lot happier than I was at the beginning of the session.

For the first of the qualifying practices I got a few laps tucked in behind Alex Lowes, he was riding real good and dragged me round a whole bunch quicker than I'd been on my own so big thanks to him for that, then it was on to Q2 and finally Q3, I managed by far my quickest time of the weekend in Q3 but unfortunately it was only good enough for P5 for race one.

After the qualifying sessions we decided on a plan to try for the morning warm up session, sure the track temperature would be down but we needed to improve our bike so it was worth trying, the only problem was that upon pre warming the bike before the warm up session the bike developed a problem which ended up being one that the team just couldn't fix in time, they changed absolutely everything over as quick as they could from an electronics point of view and still the problem was there so they had to result to an engine change meaning we completely missed the warm up session and our chance to try the changes we wanted, it was too big a gamble to go straight into the races with the setting We wanted to try so we reverted back to qualifying spec and crossed our fingers.

I had a plan for race 1, not that it was going to be easy but regardless I had a plan and that was to sit on Alex's seat unit for as long as possible, he'd certainly shown everyone a clean pair of heels most of the weekend so I figured it wasn't a bad plan but like I said executing it would be a whole different matter. I got a good start in the race and didn't take long at all to get close to the front, the pace was weird because it was pretty slow so I rode accordingly trying my best to preserve my tyre for the latter stages of the race, I knew that some of the guys would run the harder compound and make that work but we'd had no time at all to do anything with it so we had to run the soft and try to be careful... Those thoughts quite obviously weren't ringing in my ears when having took the lead I ran way too deep into the stadium section and ran off track, what a dick, basically i'd got real good drive off the corner before and having got the lead was keen to try to stretch it a bit so I broke a tiny bit too late got real crossed up, had to let off the brake and then ran real wide and off track dropping myself down to 6th or 7th in the process,I got my ass in gear sharp ish and started picking the guys off again before a last lap battle with Michael Laverty to finally claim 2nd which I was happy enough with, especially as it gave me back the lead in the championship.

For race two we made some small changes to the bike especially to help the rear of the bike which I was struggling with a bit in the latter stages of race 1, it was kind of tricky because in some ways the problems needed opposite soloutions to fix them and kind of fixing one would make the other worse and vice versa but we hoped that overall they would improve the package, we had set the 2nd fastest time in race 1 so we started P2 on the grid, I got a great start and lead into turn 1 and stayed there for a bit, I had a few backwards and forward moments with Michael Laverty and a couple were particularly close, it was a little bit frustrating because Michael was strong in a few places but overall I could lap faster and I was a bit concerned that maintaining a slower pace would enable a load more riders to tag on with the front guys.
Later in the race Alex came through and I figured he might be able to drag me clear of the rest so I sat on his back wheel for a lap or two but the break never happened and in a few places I felt quicker, with about three or four laps to go Alex had a big bobble going onto the back straight and I thought right this is my chance, I've got to try to go now, unfortunately though I had to roll a tiny bit because I was quite close behind him, regardless I got my head down and made a point of glancing quickly at the big tv monitor in the stadium section to check my gap, starting the last lap I knew it was going to be real tight but I thought do the best you can, make no mistakes and see what happens, I could hear a bike which I figured was Alex pretty much the whole lap right up my exhaust pipe but no passes had happened, going into the stadium area for the final time I could hear him right on me so I drifted a tiny bit wide on the exit of the left to block the entry to the following right and thought right I should have this now, going in real tight I was a tiny bit slow entry wise but held a tight ish line, just got on the gas to square off the exit and then Alex appeared underneath me, I thought NOOOOOOOO, I kept on the gas and tried to ride around the outside of him and then squared off the final fast right but I missed out on the win by just 4 1000th's of a second, I was gutted but far happier than the 1st race because this time at least I was in with a good shout of a win, something I had no chance of in race 1!!!!

Looking back on the weekend now I think as a team we did a fantastic job, of course I'll never be happy with 2nd places but after losing so much track time and having a third gear high side two seconds wasn't bad going and it came with the added bonus of taking the lead in the championship, albeit by a measly 9 points, that 2nd race win would've certainly helped that a bit that's for sure!!!

Monday morning we headed straight off to Brno for a few days off, this is about the only place in the world that we actually get to full on relax and escape from everything, I'm really enjoying a few days off now before getting right back on the case training wise in preparation for the Grand Finale at Brands Hatch, that will be here before we know it and I can't wait. Massive thanks to Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki and Paul Bird Motorsport for all their hard work over the weekend and also to all the fans for your support, it means a lot!!Take it easy, Shakey #67

Assen, the comeback!!

I have to admit that the prospect of heading into the start of Showdown having been operated on just three weeks previously was one that had me both keen to get out but real nervous about how strong I’d feel once I finally got back on the bike, Assen is far from an “easy” circuit in terms of the physical effort required in order to make the fast changes of direction but whatever happened I knew I had no choice other than to get out there and get amongst it.

A few days before Assen the team got me out on my team mates Superstock 1000 bike and despite the first session getting a bit sore towards the end the 2^nd session actually felt a fair bit better so that gave me some hope, however riding around Snetterton on a stocker is one thing, fighting for a 3^rd BSB title on a Superbike is completely another!!!

My team mate Stuart and I walked the track on Thursday afternoon and as soon as we started I was thinking oh no, this parts gonna be hard, that parts gonna require some muscling through but I remained positive and thought lets just take every session as it comes and see how we get on.

I got out on track first thing Friday morning and felt remarkably at ease with the whole ordeal, the plan was to basically just build up and up as the weekend wore on and with that in mind I rode with no painkillers, no strapping, nothing just to get a clear idea of where we were, I was as you can probably imagine pretty damn chuffed to end the session P1 half a second in front of anyone else, I though blimey that’ll do lol!!!

The second session was fairly similar, we started on old tyres then put a new rear in at the end of the session, the changes we’d made to the bike however had gone the wrong way and that accompanied with a bit of traffic on the new rear saw me finish the session P3, mind you, if you’d offered me P1 and P3 a week ago i would have took that more than happily!!!


Sure i can see a £1 coin down there!!!

Saturday morning we once again started with a used rear tyre and it was obvious immediately that the changes the team had made to the bike were much better, I spent a few laps riding with Alex Lowes and felt really comfortable, however without trying to make excuses my shoulder at one particular point of the track was getting pretty sore, certainly more so than the first days riding that’s for sure, regardless we cracked on and had a bit of a dig on a new rear tyre towards the end of the session, initially we went P1 again but dropped to P2 behind Smrz, we knew we had a little bit of work to do though as the new tyre had given us a little bit of chatter, something that I hadn’t had with the previous used one so for sure we could improve.

With the next session of the weekend being the 1^st of the Superpole qualifying ones it was important to try to improve but at the same time we didn’t want to go too far away from what we had, we ended up making changes throughout both session 1 and

Session 2 and to be fair we were P1 in both so the changes we were making seemed to be working, Superpole 3 however was a whole different ball game, first I made a mistake on my first flying lap then basically over rode my 2^nd lap being annoyed with myself about my 1^st flyer, then to make matters worse 2 crap laps had left me in 7^th and to top that it started to spit with rain, I thought bloody hell can’t things just go my way for once, I toured a lap and the rain passed so I approached the final chicane and thought “right, this is it, lets have it” sure enough, I crossed the line to see the chequered flag being waved….bugger, 7^th it is then!!!

Morning warm up came and went without drama, P1 or 2 I think, I was pretty happy as I matched my qualifying time on the used tyres from the day before so now all we had was the prospect of 2 18 lap races around a pretty bloody physical circuit to look forward to!!!


Massive thanks to these guys for all their help!!!

For the first time all weekend I decided to go to the medical centre to get some strapping put on my shoulder and to get a couple of painkillers to help deal with the fact I was about to face 18 laps on the bounce so I got that all sorted and headed out to form up on the grid.

As the lights went out for the start I got a pretty good launch, I was maybe 3^rd or 4^th through the first couple of turns, Kuba Smrz was one of the guys in front of me and I knew that it may be difficult for him after a couple of laps so I put a pass on him and Josh to go second behind Michael Laverty, I followed Michael for a couple of laps but felt way too comfortable so I went for the lead to see if I could make a break, initially Michael stayed with me and a few laps later came back past but once in the lead he dropped our pace by about ¾’s of a second per lap and my pit board told me that Josh and Alex were coming through so I put another pass on Michael on got my head down and immediately the gap started to go up, eventually it went up to just over 5 seconds but with that much in hand I decided a nice stand up wheelie to celebrate a successful comeback was in order so I ended up wining by 4.7 seconds, as you can probably imagine I was absolutely over the moon!!!!!


Celebrating my race 1 win!!!

Understandably we never made any changes to the bike for race two, at the end of the day for the last 5 or 6 laps or so in race 1 we were a second a lap quicker than anyone, for sure there would be some people gambling tyre wise but I figured if I kept my nose clean in the early stages I’d be able to settle into a good rhythm and just see where it took us, I got a great start and holeshoted into turn 1, I kept things clean and got my head down initially but my first flying lap which felt pretty good was a second off my best from race 1, I pushed harder again and got into the 38’s the following lap then just made a massive effort to maintain that all race, my outright pace wasn’t as fast for some reason but my performance over race distance was certainly stronger, unfortunately though so was Josh’s, with about 3 laps to go he slipped past me and by that point I was feeling it a bit with my shoulder but I could see straight away that he was having a hard time, I honestly thought, that’s cool, I’ve got this, I followed him for a lap or so then I got a run on him out of the last chicane and passed him into turn 1, I knew I need a tidy, clean and fast lap and hoped that in the first couple of sectors I could do enough to hold him off, I managed that and just tried as hard as possible on the run back to the final chicane, I knew full well to expect a lunge and also knew that if I protected the inside too much he’d get a run to the line, sure enough the lunge came and sure enough I got straightened up good but the problem was there was a back marker right in the middle of the chicane, Josh sat him up and that kind of put him directly in my path, I yanked my bike upright to avoid him, got a bit of a wheelie and lost on the run to the line so I was absolutely gutted…

Having now had a couple of days I’ve kind of calmed down a little regarding the 2^nd place, I mean at the end of the day if you’d offered me a 1^st and a 2^nd a week ago I would have laughed at you, that or chewed your arms off!!! I guess the first Showdown round has proved that in our sport anything and I mean anything can happen, look at the weekend Tommy had for instance, getting thrown over the bars and missing the first race purely because a mechanic from another team stepped into his path, kind of puts me being annoyed into perspective doesn’t it… Now we have just a few days off before heading to Silverstone, I really like the track and know that it’s important to keep our momentum going, I guess being positive we’re only going to get stronger from here on in, 3 or 4 weeks ago I had a complicated shoulder surgery so to come back and 1, 2 at Assen bodes well for when I get some strength back, fingers crossed!!!

Big crowds at our first BSB Assen visit!!

I guess all that remains to say is a massive thanks once again to professor Funk, to the circuit medics, to all the fans that came from the UK and the new Dutch fans we got to meet and most importantly to my Paul Bird Motorsport Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team for all their effort, roll on Silverstone, take it easy, Shakey #67  

Post Cadwell, pre Assen..

Well, once again I’m real sorry for the delay I getting this blog out to you guys but I am pleased to say that things are getting better all the time in Shakey’s world, I’ve put in so much hard work both physio and training wise that the shoulder is getting better and better so now and I can’t wait to get back out on my bike again at Assen next weekend, fortunately for me the team are giving me a little run out on the teams Superstock bike this week before heading over to Holland so we can get an idea of where we’re at which will be cool.

Going backwards briefly Cadwell Park had started well for us, we had good pace immediately even though some of the others had tested there, but as you will all know it all went horribly wrong in 2^nd free practice and I ended up with a grade four dislocation of my shoulder and some pretty messed up ligament damage, to put it in laymens terms, I ripped all the tendons and ligaments off of my actual collarbone completely and it then decided it wanted to be front to back in my body rather than going from your neck ish across to the top of your shoulder, not cool at all really!!!

Since Cadwell Park I have been doing everything I can to get myself fit again. I was extremely lucky to have had the operation so quickly and the greatly named Professor Funk did a fantastic job to get the shoulder back in position and grafted in some artificial ligaments which was a complete success.

I have been hitting the physio hard every day, my life would’ve been so much easier if I’d just slept at the treatment room lol, sometimes going more than once a day and trying to train to make it as strong as possible for the first round of the Showdown which is when the championship gets serious.

After the crash I set myself the goal of coming back for the Showdown at Assen, I certainly haven’t come so far this season to give up now, especially when that third title is still in sight and the Showdown can create some real unpredictability in the races.

I did consider riding at Donington the other week when I had a big improvement during the week leading up to it but I didn’t want to risk making the injury worse at a round where I needed to be on the podium for it to make the difference so the Rapid Solicitors team and I decided it would be best for me to rest and get as healthy as possible for Assen.

I really like the track at Assen and it is a good feeling to be going back there. I have raced there before in both Moto GP and WSB days and that I suppose could be an advantage but at the same time most of us have experienced the track previously. The key thing for me will be my shoulder and it is impossible to know how it will be until we get out on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki on track, It’s definitely a physically demanding layout and I am sure that it won’t be easy but it is what it is and I will still be giving it my all to get the best result possible, getting to have a quick run out on my team mates Superstock bike this week will help to blow out a few cobwebs before jumping back onto my bad boy in Holland and hopefully stepping on top of the rostrum..

Everything will 100% depend on my shoulder, at the end of the day i didn’t fall off pushing the bike too hard at Cadwell Park, in fact the accident was only as bad as it was because I was 110% on top of my game, sounds daft I know but it was actually saving the accident that caused it to be as bad as it was, had I just lost the front I would have just slid down the track and that would have been that, it was catching the crash that caused the drama!!! We have shown a good pace all year and the team are doing an incredible job so it will all be down to my strength from here on in, the only thing I can promise you is that I genuinely couldn’t have done anymore to be fit!!!
 
Hope to see some of you at Assen for what I am sure is going to be one of the best events of the season, I can’t wait to get out there and get this Showdown started!

Take it easy and cross everything you have for me guys and girls, Shakey #67

Post Cadwell, BIG BOOOM...

Like a total dipstick I left the UK after our last round at Brands hatch having already typed out my Blog on my desktop but forgot to post the bloody thing and couldn’t get it again until we returned to the UK, well, as you’ll probably all know to well by now things haven’t exactly gone to plan since our return but before we get too involved with that I’ve got to say that what was supposed to be a bit of time out and a nice family holiday turned into an absolute full on training mission, in those 3 and a bit weeks I trained probably harder than I’ve ever trained in my life, 13 bicycle rides equaled 755 miles, that’ll give you an indication as to how much I trained, and that’s just cycling, that doesn’t include 3 or 4 10 km runs, a BSB test day at Donington and some swimming so I definitely both physically and mentally was right up for it by the time we got back, going for a BSB weekend would probably seem like a bit of time off lol!!!!

Onwards now to last weekend and looking back it actually started off pretty crap with a crap bank holiday traffic infested drive up to Cadwell Park, there is nothing worse than being sat going nowhere and I’m far from the most patient of people where that is concerned, it took something like 5 and a half hours to get there yet two days previous we got there to drop off the motorhome in just under 4, then to make matters worse where a mate of mine hadn’t plugged the motorhome in to the electric whilst storing it for me and the batteries were dead so nothing would work when I got there, that made me smile, not!!!

Right enough doom and gloom already, knowing that our rivals had all tested up at Cadwell very recently it was important that we tried to get up to speed as quick as possible and sure enough we came out strong, we had nearly a second a lap over the rest of the field for a good chunk of the session however Tommy fired in a new set of tyres towards the end and pipped us by a 10^th but we were right in the ball park from the word go so I was more than happy enough.. I had been hoping that it would stay dry, especially after the bad forecast and it did stay good, well for that first session anyway, I was certainly relieved to have woken up to that and to get some dry laps in, as you never know when it might suddenly change, that then makes it difficult if it is wet all the way through till race day and then it dries out especially as we knew the other guys had already been out for some dry track time.
 
Then it all went a bit wrong in the afternoon...

On my first proper flying lap in free practice two I went up through the Woodlands section, I had new tyres in that were perfectly scrubbed in and I was pushing on a bit, unfortunately just over the top of the crest I hit the brakes in my usual spot but locked the front tyre, luckily, well unluckily for me as the case would be you are already on left side of the track, I managed to catch it but in hindsight it was a terrible thing because if I had just lost it and crashed I would have gone straight on and been ok, but the bike gripped darted sharply to the left and went into the tyre wall and then after a head on flipped me big time over the handlebars.

The end result is I have managed to have a grade five dislocation of my left shoulder and torn the ligaments off my collarbone and sent it off out the back somewhere, amazingly with a grade 5 being really rare I never actually broke anything so I was incredibly lucky, after being assessed initially by the wonderful circuit medics I was then taken by air ambulance to Hull for further tests but to be honest we weren’t making much progress there so a call once again to the circuit medics and some hectic texts and calls by them on my behalf got us the chance to see Professor Lennard Funk in Manchester the following day, however, the circuit medics came to my motorhome after all their hard work that night, informed me I needed to be in Manchester around 11am the following day, left me some painkillers and headed off, well, that was great but I took the painkillers, slept like a baby and woke at 10-55am the next day!!!!! Talk about panic, I got up, brushed my teeth then me and my mate rushed over to Manchester, I was sat in the passenger seat thinking bloody hell this is like being in a real life Gran Turismo computer game but we made good time so I was happy, being sat in a car with your collarbone popping in and out really isn’t that much fun!!! We arrived to see the professor who after about 2 minutes said yeah we should definitely operate, I’ll do it this afternoon, with that before I knew it I was under the knife and job done, new ligaments attached to the ones I’d ripped out, pinned back together, some self taping screws and superglue (only joking!!)!!! That evening we headed back to the track at a rather more sedate pace than what we’d got to Manchester at and chilled out ready for hopefully another good nights sleep…  

The sleep situation was nowhere near as good that night but regardless I got to see and thank the circuit medics personally, done a bit of TV stuff then got packed up and headed home early to beat the bank holiday traffic, Now, I’m resting and I’m really hoping the Showdown might work for me this time, basically I’ve got just over three weeks to heal, you can rest assured I’ll do everything in my power to get as strong as possible as fast as possible and who knows, if I feel good enough I might even try to ride at Donington which would be cool. If I feel like I can win at Donington then I will come back and ride but if I don’t feel strong enough to ride then I will wait until Assen and the first round of the Showdown when we need to ride.  It is one of those need to basis things. I am doing everything I can between now and Donington to be strong and if I am strong enough then great but if not we will do Assen.

The funny thing is about the whole race weekend thing I really don’t think I got the chance to hurt too much, that may sound a bit daft but everything seemed that busy and blurry that things seemed to be happening before I’d even realized, yesterday however was a whole different ball game, I finally got to sleep in my own bed, chilled out but the following morning, BOOOOOM, it hit me like a train, I woke up pretty damn sore, quickly had some breakfast so I could take some painkillers then pretty much went back to bed where I ended up staying for most of the day, I guess all the time your still and sleeping your healing though so maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, Thursday is when physio starts, step by step though…

I’ve got everything crossed that we’ll be back at near 100% by Assen as I haven’t come this far and worked this hard to give up on my 3^rd title now, I’ll let you all know how that’s going in my next Blog, but until then, keep the faith…. I HAVE!!!!!! 

Post Brands hatch!!

Well, what can I say, this is the blog I have been looking forward to writing all season, the one about our first double win for the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team and cementing my place in the title shootout showdown and where better for that to happen than my home track Brands Hatch, even if I now get labeled as the Brands specialist lol ;-) typically me though it’s a week late coming but hey, what do I always say, better late than never right!!!???

I know I mentioned in my previous blog after the Oulton weekend that I was gutted not to have won there and both myself and the rest of the team left there really revved up and determined to turn things around, especially knowing the next round would be at Brands where there’s always a good turnout to support us and also with Tommy Hill doing such a good job at Oulton we didn’t need to be losing touch in the podium credits stakes!!

The Brands hatch GP weekends always start with the first day of practice on the Indy circuit, we all know why it has to be done that way but the official test was just a chance really for us to have a bit of a run around before the real work started on the full Grand Prix track, the two in some ways just don’t compare though, I’m actually not a massive fan of the indy circuit but the GP one, well, that’s a whole different kettle of fish, the first laps around there really make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!!!

Practice and initial stages of qualifying went real well, we’d been in the mix all weekend but when my crew chief told me before the final qualifying session we would need a 1.25 second lap time to get pole and I wasn't sure it would be possible as we were riding really hard already doing mid to low 1.26’s, you can’t rest on anything though in this job so with one final attack I pushed as hard as I could and did a 1.25.8 to take Pole position, It put us in a good position for the first race but we knew Pole was one thing and racing for 18 laps (around 30 minutes) was another so we needed to keep pushing.

Race one felt great, after a great start I made a mistake on the first or second lap at Stirlings and Michael Laverty got by me, alI I wanted was to try and get some laps in and then settle into a decent rhythm, I spent a little bit of time getting past Michael but once I did first my pit board said Michael was there, then it changed to Haga then it changed to Brookes and I thought flipping hell give me a break!! After what seemed like almost an eternity It felt fantastic to win the first race at Brands Hatch even though I was more than a little bit aware Josh Brookes was all over us there at the end, I know you only need to win by the smallest margin possible but that was a little bit too close for comfort!!!

After wininng the first race I knew the second one was going to be difficult, for the 2^nd race I’d qualified 4^th which means the inside of row one and the camber down there is real steep so it’s usually real difficult to get a good start, especially in the wet however wet wasn’t a problem for once this weekend!! The 2^nd race was almost like a mirror image in some ways, in both races I got the lead pretty much straight away and I both races there were yellow flags out on the GP section on the 2^nd lap, I almost thought I was dreaming at one point!! 18 laps is a real long way with +.0 on your pit board, again the names changed about a little but at the end it was Josh and I going at it, we had a fantastic battle, colliding up at Druids with Josh trying some brave moves to force me into a mistake, I just tried to be as precise as possible and then I saw Josh alongside me down the straight finish line and I thought 'oh no, he then tried to pass around the outside at Paddock and I wanted to let off a little to not let him passed but I didn't want to run wide and ruin the drive up to Druids, but fortunately i held on and was able to push really hard for the last three laps which got the job of breaking him slightly done only then on the last lap I made a small mistake on the exit of Surttees which could’ve cost me as that’s the corner that leads out onto the all important back straight and then to make matters worse i missed a gear between Westfield and Sheene Curve and I thought that's it he’s going to do me now as I had seen plus zero on my pit board but fortunately I held it and crossed the line for a double win!!!

There are a few of us who were really fast last weekend, and indeed have been all year, three of us, Tommy, Josh and myself have all cemented our places in the showdown now and have everything to fight for but there’s a couple of others that are strong too, Haga and Laverty spring to mind immediately who will almost certainly end up in the Showdown so it’s going to be tough, none of us can give an inch right now and those all important podium credits are still up for grabs!!!

Brands put us in a good place, I got a decent start from pole position and then won both races even though Josh kept me honest, it’s critical now not to rest on our laureIs and continue pushing real hard in preparation for the Showdown.

We now have a bit of time off for the summer break, a month or so in fact so we’re off to our place in Spain to chill out for a bit, that and to absolutely hammer myself cycling around the local area, it’s great training, loads of the big cycling teams come down and spend time there so I’ll be doing my best to chase them down, hopefully they’ll all be knackered after the Tour so I might get half a chance ha ha!!!

Right one more thank you to all involved in my racing and hopefully it is onwards and upwards from here, talk to you all soon, take it easy, Shakey #67
  

Oulton park 2 2012...

To say that I was looking forward to getting back to Oulton park for round 6 of the championship is a bit of an understatement, let’s face it, things have been going pretty well lately, my bike’s been improving week in week out and having won at Oulton last time we were there, won at Knockhill and generally taken some good steps I was hopeful of some very strong results from last weekends triple header!!

The weather forecast didn’t look particularly special so I never bothered taking my bicycle with me so I was gutted when I woke Thursday to be greeted by bright sunshine, it seems every time I take my bike it rains and when I don’t it doesn’t!! The weather had other ideas for Friday though with a particularly gloomy wet start to the weekend, we had a new spec of engine to try that we were very hopeful of but for some reason in the first session the bike ran like a bag of nails, my data guy Ben made some improvements but the actual performance wasn’t exactly staggering which was a bit gutting, I withheld judgment though hoping a dry session might let me use the engine better and give better feedback on it..

Saturday we finally got a dry session and with some improvements mapping wise the bike started to feel a little bit better, from a chassis point of view the changes we’d been making over the course of the last few rounds were feeling pretty good though and I was enjoying my riding which is always highly important, we knew we needed to improve but ending up P2 and only a 10^th or two off of Tommy was a decent start in the dry.

Due to the three race format from here on in it was straight into qualifying, we knew we comfortably had the pace to get through at least the first session and probably the second but there’s a good few one lap wonders out there and to be perfectly honest using a tyre to the best of it’s ability doesn’t appear to be one of my strong points at the minute, it’s something we’re working on but for me it’s far more important to be strong for race distance than it is for one lap and generally we seem to find ourselves on or pretty damn near front row pace anyway!!

For some reason we got through Q1 no drama at all but in Q2 we started having a few little dramas, nothing major it was just that the engine was feeling real tight on the overrun and I had a bit too much backing in going on whilst trying to run into turns quickly which wasn’t ideal, we got through ok though so it wasn’t a drama, Q3 here we come…

Q3 just didn’t go my way, that’s the long and short of it, we made a couple of little changes to the bike to try to improve the bikes rear corner entry stability but just didn’t find what we were looking for, my cause wasn’t aided either when one of the other guys lapped about 3 or 4 seconds off the pace in the final session yet didn’t move over when waved a blue flag but anyway, no excuses, we weren’t good enough in the final session and we ended up P5 and off the front row, needless to say I wasn’t happy!!

The first race of the weekend just didn’t go to plan full stop, that from my point of view is almost enough said, the problems we’d suffered in the qualifying sessions were compounded massively by a duff rear tyre, I ended up with so much corner entry chatter that I just couldn’t ride the thing, I maintained 2^nd for pretty much most of the race then got passed by Josh at the last corner and dropped to 3^rd, if you thought I was unhappy after qualifying……

Sundays warm up gave us a chance to get out and realize the rear tyre had been a big issue in the previous days race but something was still a miss, if I told you that the race I won earlier in the year I was lapping almost a whole 1.5 seconds per lap average faster that’ll tell you we were up against it, with that pace i could have rode off into the distance this time around!!!

Race 2 and to be honest things didn’t get a great deal better, we pushed hard, stayed closer to Tommy by miles than we had done the previous day, had a good battle with Haga but ultimately finished 3^rd again, it’s strange in a way how two podiums from two races would normally be considered good form but let me assure you it’s not what I’m turning up for, the difference of that 1 posistion between 1^st and 2^nd means everything, and I mean everything, I used to think Foggy was overdoing the winning statements back in the day but I so get it, if you get a 2^nd or a 3^rd who gives a shit, I certainly don’t, both of them mean you lost yet the elation from finishing 1 position higher and winning is the only thing that matters, weird!!!!

After that 2^nd race the boys discovered a problem, the problem, but an even bigger problem was the fact that the problem had been happening for an undisclosed amount of time and we didn’t know where to go to rectify it, it turns out that an electrical issued (yeah I know, an electrical fault ;-) ) had basically not been letting our engine braking strategy work properly but it had been kind of intermittent and engine braking was something we’d been working really hard on for the last few rounds.. the guys or should I say Ben our data guy took a bit of a punt on the setting and Johnny my crew chief went a step further with our chassis setting than we’d ever been so the final race was going to be a bit of a revelation or a disaster, fortunately though it was pretty much the former, it took me a while to get going and to understand the bike and the settings so I was a bit steady initially but once I got my head around things we were away, unfortunately it took me too long to pass Nori in the final race despite catching him quite quickly as the Yamahas just seem to be that bit stronger than everything right now, sure the guys are riding well and I take nothing away from Tommy but shit that thing’s got some grunt and not only that it has good top speed now too, just what we need, not!!!

The race came to a conclusion with Tommy once again putting the hammer down whilst I was stuck behind Nori and gapping me a little but at least in that race I actually felt like we might have an answer, sure we never had the best bike out there but we had a decent package and this isn’t a “I could’ve won that” number it’s simply me being far happier with the bike in the final race meaning I could push harder.


What a cool pic!!!

The team are away now to work flat out to fix our issues, Birdy was really complimentary about my riding at the weekend and has vowed to do whatever it takes to get us back to the front and believe me the mans not shy, hopefully Brands hatch in a couple of weeks will be a whole different ball game, I’m certainly going to do everything I possibly can to make it happen from my end, I want this championship again this year, 2 title’s is nowhere near enough and on that note I’m out of here, take it easy guys ad girls, Shakey #67

Knockhill!!

Well that was Knockhill for another year guys and girls and I’d just like to thank whoever ordered the weather for the weekend because despite the forecast looking particularly grim we didn’t end up like drowned rats on race day!!

We had a pretty good first day on track and somewhat unbelievably we got two pretty much dry sessions, there was one small rain shower but it didn’t really affect us too much at all, we were fastest in free practice one and then just pipped in the second one so we had an idea on what we needed to improve for qualifying and we felt good going forward, the only problem was that we needed at least one more full dry session as pretty much everything you do with your bike chassis or settings wise is devised form your current “dry” settings, my team had done a great job and I was looking forward to the weekend already despite the small air of uncertainty settings wise, we knew we’d get it nailed but like I said it needed to be fully dry and I needed to push 110% to confirm a few things.

Qualifying went ok, by ok I mean we just missed out on the front row, which was a bit annoying really as we were fourth, generally at pretty much every other circuit you have 4 bikes to a row but 4^th at Knockhill meant the 2^nd row, something I never actually realised until I did a bit of surfing that evening in the motorhome and read on a couple of websites, to think I was pretty happy thinking 4^th meant front row, I even did a big wheelie over the start finish line, what a dipstick!! 

Fortunately for me the Sunday morning warm up session was dry, that was luck in itself though as whilst I was sat eating my breakfast it started spitting a little with rain, I sat there staring out of the motorhome window saying words to the effect of “please sod off rain” :-) Being dry we got the chance to try some settings that we’d wanted to try all weekend and despite the fact we used old tyres from qualifying we ended the session fastest and matched my all out lap time form the qualifying session on new tyres so things were looking a bit more promising for the race, well, if they were dry that was!!!

The first race was tough, I mean proper tough, being such an almost ridiculously short lap circa 49 seconds we have to do 30 laps per race and the thing with Knockhill is there isn’t one split second where you get to actually rest on the bike, you’re constantly heaving the thing from one side to the other or fighting to either A) stop yourself going over the handlebars under hard braking or B) stop the bike from throwing you off the back under hard acceleration, bear in mind a little food for thought our Superbikes will accelerate from 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds and the only reason it takes that long is the risk of flipping one!!!!

I got a good start from the 2^nd row and by about lap 3 or 4 I’d taken the lead, It isn’t easy when you have 30 laps with +0 on you pit board but the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki worked really well, throughout the race the most I could get the gap up to was +0.5 but then it would come down the lap later so there was no rest. At the end of the day though you only need to win by the minimum amount possible and to take the win by just over a second was testament to the job the team did for me, a win is what we were after so we are all well happy with that.

To be honest after such a good first race we’d have been stupid to change too much on the bike, we went with exactly the same settings and I figured I’d try to get a start again then just see how things panned out. One of the reasons we’d kept the same settings from the first race was because in some ways I was surprised by the outright lap times from the first race, I actually felt if needed I’d be able to maintain a slightly faster pace for race two so we just rolled with it, both Michael and Tommy had a strong pace initially and I sat in third thinking right you boys can do the leading for a bit in this one, I’ll just follow happily for a bit, however about 10 laps in I noticed Michael Laverty looking particularly keen to lead and at this point I was behind Tommy, Michael got his head down and to be honest it took me a lap too long to pass Tommy who’s incredibly strong there anyway and by the time I did Michael had pulled about a second or so on me and with the circuit being such a short tight lap it’s almost impossible to catch back up, I desperately wanted another win and pushed as hard as I could but in the end second is better than crashing out and I was happy to come away with some more podium credits for our championship and the top points scorer for the weekend so I have to say a massive thanks to the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team for all their hard work, fingers crossed it’ll be more of the same next time out at Oulton park, maybe see you there, take it easy, Shakey #67
  

Moto GP rider for the day!!!

It seems like forever ago even though it’s only 6 days but I thought I’d do a quick Blog about being a Moto GP rider again for the day. If I’m perfectly honest with you it wasn’t really something that I was that bothered about doing but at the same time it was a far better option than racing the bike at Le Mans and I wanted to try to help James and the team as best I could without causing any problems, basically Birdy (my team owner) had asked for my input on the bike but whilst it’s quite an exciting prospect I’m under no illusions whatsoever as to how hard it would have been to turn up cold at a Moto GP race and try to finish anywhere other than last so the test the day after the Spanish grand prix seemed a far more sensible option!!!

Turning up at Barcelona was pretty cool, you truly forget just how bloody loud the bikes are and how fast the top bikes are too, the team had a couple of bits and pieces that they had to test with James but I was to go out and ride for a bit first, then James, then me for another quick go in the afternoon, my cause wasn’t helped by the fact that shortly after the track opened both Abraham and Cal Crutchlow crashed not exactly inspiring me with confidence to get out and try Bridgestone tyres for the 1^st time ;-)

Eventually I got out for my 1^st run on the bike after just moving the levers and gear lever a little bit, the aim of the test was simply to try to give some feed back so the bike was left exactly how James had it in the GP, having spoken with James and his crew chief I was a little bit concerned about the whole tyre thing, Mick James’s crew chief basically said right you’ve got experience with carbon brakes, they need to be kept warm and make sure whatever you do you load the front tyre all the way into the corner on the brakes or it’ll go cold and the bike won’t steer at all, b****y great I thought, two experienced riders on those tyres have just crashed and I’ve got to head out on a bike I’ve never been on and load the front tyre or it won’t steer….perfect…  My initial quite surprising thought was that the bike wasn’t very fast, I mean that in a nice way though, the electronics on the bike are quite impressive but need a bit of work and generally the bike felt quite user friendly, I was expecting a far more angry package but the way the bike feels is pretty good, I struggled getting my head around the completely different way you have to ride the front tyre but the rear was absolutely perfect other than loads of chatter on corner entry, through the middle of the apex and on initial exit, this though in my opinion wasn’t all down to the tyres..

I pulled in after about 15 laps and the guys changed some electronic stuff after my feedback which had followed pretty much identically what James had said then got 1 more lap in and the bike felt much better, I was actually gutted when the chequered flag came out as I was starting to have fun even though the bike was set completely for James and we hadn’t done a thing to change it for me.

James rode the bike after lunch and they changed a few things for him and gave him the newer better front and a new rear tyre, he did his work then the bike was given back to me, the only change for me was the tyre as the front James had run was the newer one which apparently everyone other than Honda likes and for the CRT bikes is a much better option, my final exit was good fun, I enjoyed riding the bike and seeing the likes of Lorenzo etc on track was pretty cool, by the end of my second exit on used tyres I got to within a second and a half of what James had done when the tyres were new without changing a single thing so I was pretty happy with that considering James had just spent an entire weekend roaring around, sure in the race he’d gone a chunk faster again but like I said we were near enough first time out to give some feedback, for sure you need time to understand those tyres and with a bit more time we could’ve dropped the lap time easily but the last thing I needed was to either a) throw the thing at the scenery or b) go real fast and get James a load of grief!!!

I hope and I’m fairly sure that my input on the bike will help the guys going forward and who knows if I get another shot on it at some point maybe we can get going quite a bit better, thanks to the team and James for letting my have a play on their baby, for now though it’s back to BSB, I’ve got a championship to try to win, take it easy, Shakey #67

  

Snetterton round 4...

If I’m honest with you guys I went to Snetterton with 1 aim, that, was to come away leading the British Superbike championship, in hindsight that isn’t exactly important when you consider I lead the championship all last year but actually ended up 3^rd but after our 1^st win of the season at Oulton park lets just say I was right up for more victories!!

Snetterton actually got off to a far better start than Oulton with no dramas whatsoever, in fact, after arriving Wednesday evening I spent a good chunk of Thursday cleaning out all the inside then out in the sun washing the motorhome off, it’s truly amazing what a bit of sunshine does for the motivation levels ;-)

Look at the sun shot!!!

Thursday afternoon my mate Wag and I went and did some cycling around the circuit, it started off at a fairly decent pace, then we had a couple of steady laps with my data guy before Wag and I got going again, we saw Dan Linfoot, James Westmoreland and their friend pedalling around too so we cut the circuit to join them and all of us had a good ride around, to be fair I only did just over 30 miles but the conditions were so nice I felt like I could’ve rode all day, our average ended up fairly decent but the following days we all had different types of bikes to ride so didn’t want to knacker ourselves!!!

The setting that we’d been working on for the last few rounds was working pretty good, I pretty much immediately went P1 and stayed there all the way through the session, I ended up literally a 10^th off my best time from the test which was a positive start as we weren’t exactly driving ourselves mad for a lap time!!!

The afternoon session went good too, more of the same to be fair, we worked a little bit on the setting and tried changing spring rates etc, by the end of the session we’d found some positives with both the harder and the softer settings and knew we’d have to sit down that evening go through some data and choose a direction to pursue the following day.

The Saturday morning session went real good again, we were there or thereabouts the whole way through and did a more than race duration run on the used tyres we’d started on but at the end of the session after we’d done our work we fitted a new pair of tyres and I put a couple of laps together that pushed me 0.6 seconds faster than anyone and the first 1.48 second lap time of the weekend.

Qualifying was all a bit of a balls up to be honest, track temperature had shot up big time since the morning session and for the 1^st qualifying session in which you only have to make the top 20 I put a lap together that felt good yet I crossed the line and it was poor, that surprised me a bit so I pushed harder for the 2^nd lap and even that wasn’t fantastic so my 3^rd lap I properly dug in and went a bit quicker but nowhere near my 1.48 from the morning, I spoke with my crew chief and said I felt like a I pushed way too hard for such a crap time and initially we put it down to the hot track temperature, either way we were through to Q2 so it wasn’t a drama.

Can't say i didn't use all the track ;-)

In Q2 I pushed on a bit not really expecting too much but my 2^nd flying lap put me P1 a 10^th faster than my morning time which was a bit weird, no problem I thought, I’ll nail a perfect lap on my 1^st flyer in Q3 and that should do it. To be fair I only ever aim for the front row, I’m not fussed about pole position, it’s nice when it comes but the front row is all you need… 

Q3 then, the important one, perfect lap, s**t time, 2^nd lap, pushed hard, well hard, average time, lap 3 everything I had and an average time, I was fuming, the bike was exactly the same as Q1 and nothing like Q2, it was only after checking all three rear tyres that we saw that Q1 and Q3 were both from the same batch and Q2’s tyre was from a different batch, ironically my team mates were identical batch numbers to mine in all three sessions and he complained of exactly the same problem, all the hard work from the weekend down the pan and Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s 7^th and 8^th, not we we’d hoped for at all, still 2^nd row so not the end of the world but bloody annoying nonetheless..

Morning warm saw quite a few riders firing new tyres in and pushing on, the Yamaha’s in particular were pretty fast but we used old tyres from the Q2 session the day before and ended up P3 or 4 and not a million miles away times wise so all cool.

I’ll just quick apologise again about pit lane walkabout, I had an interview scheduled for the start of the walkabout but on the official time sheet had it listed as finishing at 12-15 or something yet when I rocked up with about 25 minutes or so remaining the officials claimed I was too late and that it was over so if you were one of the people that queued to see me I’m sorry!!

Lining up on the grid waiting for the lights to go out I felt pretty confident, we knew we had real good race pace from the day before so a good start and a steady few laps and we should be away. Due to the high track temperature it was always going to be necessary if possible to manage the rear tyre as best as possible so my plan was to get on and sit at the back of the leading group for the first half or so of the race then start pushing through in the later stages. My start was ok, turn 1 ok, I passed my team mate into turn two and slotted in around 5^th, absolutely perfect I thought, at one point I nearly forced a move on Haga but it would’ve been tight and in such early stages I saw little point, after a few laps however Nori started dropping off the back of the leading 4 so I thought right, time to get my finger out, I passed Nori and got my head down to get back on the back of the leaders but then a lap or so later I had an engine problem which meant I had to retire from the race, I was gutted but there’s little point in jumping up and down when your team’s involved, I know them boys are 110% behind me and they’ll be probably more gutted than I am, I got back to the pits, explained the symptoms, watched the end of the race then went back to my motorhome for lunch and my power nap that I always have between races!!

Race 2 was always going to be a little bit of a battle with all the top guys having a race under their belts and the information that gave them giving them the chance to make any necessary changes to improve their bikes, we’d made a couple of changes to my bike because of the feelings I had in the first race and that coupled with the fact that we had to change to a lesser spec motor for the 2^nd race had me a little bit on the edge!!

Open your eyes Charley ha ha!!!

I got a good start as the lights went out and ran through turn 1 maybe 3^rd but as soon as I hit the brakes for turn two the front dived real fast and got me all a bit crossed up, I had to take avoiding action to not ram the first two guys and ran out wide because of that, I rejoined in about 6^th or 7^th behind Luca Scassa, followed him for a few corners then he had a massive rear end low side on the exit onto the back straight, being right behind him I had to roll the throttle then get going again, I knew I was gonna get humped down the straight because of it and sure enough Alex Lowes came 1 side and Nori the other, we got towards the braking point and they both started squashing me a little and by now we’re doing maybe 180 odd mph, I knew getting stuck behind them both would cost me dearly so I waited till the pair of them braked then hit my brakes as hard as I could and managed to get stopped and turned through the chicane, Michael Laverty, Tommy and Josh were up front and after a few laps I was closing in on Josh, then Tommy had a bike problem and retired, I managed to pass Josh and got my head down to try to catch Michael, I went so much faster in race two but despite some fast laps I wasn’t making any headway into Michael’s lead, all I was doing was gapping Josh, eventually I settled down a bit and tried to just chip away but then towards the end of the race Josh started to catch me back up, I sped up a bit to keep him at bay but the last couple of laps were close to say the least, in fact, as I started what turned out to be the penultimate lap I rode real defensive and weaved about a bit on the back straight so that Josh couldn’t get such  a good tow but then as I got back to the star/finish I saw the 1 lap to go flag, I couldn’t believe it, I’d just rode real defensive, showed all my cards thinking it was the last lap and now there was another lap to go, I thought for gods sake, how am I going to keep him behind me now!!! Fortunately though I did so I ended up second just under 2 seconds off of Michael which I guess under the circumstances wasn’t a bad result, it’s funny though, the difference between 1^st and 2^nd to a rider is HUGE, when you win you’re buzzing, shouting to everyone under your helmet, smiling from ear to ear yet 2^nd or 3^rd you’re just like, b*****ks, I should’ve won that, no happiness whatsoever!!!!

My son Zack getting some tv time!!

One real good thing about the Snetterton round was that it clearly highlighted our Achilles heel which is off of slow turns punch, our bike’s fast once it’s up and running and good on flowing circuits but anything with slower more stop start corners we struggle a little, now though the team have a little bit more time to go away and think about a plan going forwards and talking of plans going forwards we’re off to Spain now for a couple of weeks holiday, that sounds like a perfect plan to me ;-) Take it easy everyone, Shakey #67