Oulton Park Round 3 2013

As per usual I was really looking forward to going racing heading into the Oulton park round, we managed to get a test in there the week before but only on a track/test day and whilst we ticked a couple of boxes it was difficult to get anything too meaningful done, we did however box off a couple of bits and more importantly we made a plan for the start of the following weekend of what we wanted to test and the schedule for testing them, then, what happens, we get there and I can’t help but ask what is going on with BSB rounds this year… its becoming almost customary to loose a session during the weekend, Oulton park never disappointed on that front, it had been dry then literally about 5 or 10 minutes before the session started for us the heavens opened typically just about enough for wets but with a whole weekend of dry weather forecast quite a few of us opted to stay in the pits.

That wet session kind of put the mockers on our plan because as with anything to do with racing it’s never usually a case of bolt something in and it’s immediately better, generally, you’ll put something in, get some positives and negatives, follow a path to try to improve overall then see where you end up, well, basically we had two paths to follow and not much time to follow either so we opted for the safer one.

In the afternoon session I got out and rode the bike pretty much how I finished up at the test then we bolted in a new spec shock and got to work, it was weird in a way because the modifications to the shock were exactly what I’d asked for back at Thruxton one because of my overall feeling from the bike and two because exactly what I explain when I ride is exactly what the guys see on the data, BUT, and it was a pretty big but, it didn’t feel very good at all initially, sure there was potential but it would require some more work, with that in mind we had a big debrief and talked through things with the team and K Tech and set a plan for the following morning.

Immediately on Sunday morning the bike felt much better, the changes the guys had made were real good, not fixed but much better so we decided to continue on that route.

We made a few more changes throughout the session but our pace was good, I think I did 16 or 17 consecutive 1.36 laps and the next person did 4 so things were looking pretty good but it’s never good to start counting your chickens…unless of course you’re my boss lol!!

Qualifying went pretty good, I’ve never been one to worry about pole positions, don’t get me wrong when they come I’m happy but realistically the first row is perfect, we had a plan, Keith my team mate had been struggling a little over the course of the weekend so I towed him around and through all three sessions, he did well to be fair and ended up P4 for the first race, Alex Lowes did an amazing lap for Pole, I take my hat off to him, that boy can chew the screen for a lap, I was really chuffed with my lap time, ¾’s of a second faster than I managed last year, which, I think is a bloody good jump, and was under the official lap record from when Superbikes had full electronics so wasn’t hanging about!!!

For morning warm up we continued refining the bike a tiny bit just checking that we hadn’t compromised tyre life etc in the interests of one fast lap and all seemed fine, I did a 1.35 in warm up over my laps too so it seemed our pace overall may have been improved too. 

I was pretty nervous as usual for the start of the first race, due to the way I ride in practice and qualifying ie on my own and not trying to follow people race one is always where I find out exactly where we’re at, I got a great start as the lights went out and lead into turn one, Alex shot passed into Island so I thought perfect, lets sit here and see what’s going on, Alex was riding good and his pace was strong but it was about the same as my practice pace so I was feeling pretty good and relaxed, I got to see the areas where my bike was strong and where it was weak which was exactly what I expected so that was ok, I followed him for a good few laps and could see that we were just starting to break the guys behind so I started thinking about where on the track I’d be able to make a pass, I semi lined up a few places, to me it seemed I was quite strong in the 1st and last sectors but Alex was real fast in the 2nd sector, one place I thought I might be able to strike was out of the foulstons chicane, over hill top and down towards Hizzy’s, we ran in towards the chicane and I remember looking at the rear exhaust and swingarm of Alex’s bike and then the next thing I knew I was looking at daisies in the grass after a real weird loss of the front, I wasn’t expecting it at all, indeed the data logging showed no difference in speed, line, lean angle, nothing, very strange and very frustrating too, we’d have our work cut out now for race two….

The boys got the bike fixed up in no time, I guess if there’s a place to crash at Oulton you’d go for there or the entrance to the tight left in the middle of Hizzy’s for minimal damage, I’d had the 2nd fastest lap from race 1 for race 2 so lined up 2nd, I got a mega start as the lights went out and lead for a bit, after a few laps Alex passed me but I could see it wasn’t possible for him to get away and felt more than comfortable sat behind him, I have to confess to being pretty steady through the chicane for the first few laps just to be sure lol!!!

As the race wore on I got back in the lead as I could see that the guys behind were right on us, I pushed to maintain the lap times and at one point about 3 laps from the end I got a tiny bit of a gap but as we went into the last lap my board said +.0 again, that lap I tried real hard to do three things, go fast, be protective and make no mistakes, I kept seeing the race from last year when Josh got me at the final turn so I made a real conscious effort to nail druids and stay right down the final straight, I braked as late as I could without risking running too deep, got the bike stopped and turned then fired it out of the turn towards the finish line and managed to hold on for the win, a perfect way to say sorry to my boys for all their hard work in between the races!!!

I was absolutely made up with the win, it made me real happy, I couldn’t envisage anything worse than going into the long summer break on the back of a bad weekend so to pull it out of the bag was good for us as it keeps the momentum going. I’m really hopeful of a test or two in the break in order for us to work some more on the bike, we know exactly what we need to do and hopefully with some decent weather and a decent track with an open pit lane we can properly getting the Kawasaki turned from a good bike to a great one, I feel there’s a lot of untapped potential there and it’s only going to get stronger so roll on those tests and in some ways these 5 weeks too, I can’t wait to go racing again, next time it’s north of the border for Knockhill, should be good!!! 

Take it easy, 
Shakey #67