It has to be said that after getting the opportunity to test at Snetterton last week ahead of this weekends BSB round I was really looking forward to getting back to the track and getting back on my bike to continue the work we'd started.
The test itself didn't exactly go to plan in some ways, don't get me wrong a test's a test and that's what you should use it for but when pretty much the whole BSB grid is out things inevitably start to get competitive!!!
We had a good plan for the test, a schedule we needed to work from and to, basically starting with some stuff we learnt at Knockhill then working towards last years set up and trying some new spec K Tech front forks.
As a team we've been making good progress with the bike this year and the new forks were something that had me quite excited, unfortunately however about a million red flags throughout the day saw our schedule go a little bit south, we did however get the chance to fire the new forks in right at the end of the day and the results were interesting, they were much better in some areas but worse in others, work in progress I think we'll call them!!!
To start the first session on the race weekend we stuck with the new forks, at the end of the day these are going to be a step forwards so wasting a session on the old ones didn't make a lot of sense, unfortunately for me though despite having plenty of time to go over all the data from testing and starting with a different setting in them the new forks were still giving me a bit of grief, we ended the session however after a few changes in P2 just a 10th off of Alex and he and I were nearly a second quicker than the rest so it wasn't a total drama!!
For the afternoon session we made some more changes, the team worked real hard and we started to make a bit of headway, I still wasn't happy and felt we had lots more work to do, it wasn't so much a problem of the bike doing this or that but more that I felt like I had much more to give than the bike would allow and as soon as I tried to push on it just brought on uncertainty and a lack of feel, I basically wanted to ride it like I stole it rather than wobbling around on the thing like its my pride and joy which I don't even want to splat a fly on the front of!!! We ended session two well, a new pair of tyres saw us go P1 by just under 0.6 of a second but as I said I knew I wanted and needed more!!!
We made some changes overnight to try to cure some of our problems, a gearing change and some geometry changes and we found a better feeling, I did over race distance on used tyres and my rhythm was still good, we still had a little bit of work to do but the fact I was now pulling an extra 3 bar of front brake pressure was an indication that I was starting to feel more comfortable and be able to push the front harder, I actually went a bit faster too in that session but Alex pipped me by 2 100ths of a second, the pair of us 6 10ths faster than the rest!!
Qualifying Saturday afternoon turned into a bit of a nightmare, the first two sessions were not what we were looking for, we were constantly changing the bike to try to get a better feeling from the front but seemed to be chasing moving goal posts, every time we made a little change a variable, a tyre, the track temperature, traffic or something else seemed to hamper us, I was actually hoping after two bad sessions that it would be 3rd time lucky in the final session, however despite my fastest time of the weekend I was still a bit off what I hoped and thought I'd be able to do and my final lap got blocked by another rider so 2nd it was! Front row's a front row though so I was happy enough.
We had a few changes that we wanted to test for the morning warm up session after sitting down after qualifying and going through the data but morning warm ups track temperature was only 32 degrees track temperature so we'd have to wait to see what conditions the races brought and with temperatures forecast to rocket we were in for a tough old day...
Unfortunately for me time had run out, we'd tried a soft bike, a hard bike, a long bike, a short bike and just about every permutation of the lot of them and nothing we'd done had given us the feeling we were looking for going into the races, there was only one thing left to try... Something I hadn't tried in just over two seasons, the harder front Pirelli tyre, I really wasn't happy about this, really wasn't happy but he track temperature was getting higher and higher and the data showed that the reason I'd been struggling all through practice and qualifying was that basically the front tyre was getting seriously squashed with the amount of load I was trying to put through it and that was why I couldn't get any feel from it, basically it just wasn't consistent.
I went out on the sighting lap with the harder front in and came straight back into pit lane to get an extra lap on it, before taking to the grid, my crew chief asked me "what do you want to do?" What could I say, in effect this was the only variable we hadn't tried, I had to give it a go didn't I...
My confidence was far from high when on the warm up lap at about 50-60% of my normal pace I flicked the bike into Oggies and completely lost the front and nearly went down, I thought to myself Christ if this happens at that pace what's it going to be like next time through here at race pace... I guess I'd soon find out!!!
As the lights went out I got a bit of an awkward launch and unintentionally veered left slightly, Josh had got a good start too and I happily rolled into turn one behind him in case I pushed the front too hard on the way in and crashed, not exactly my usual battle tactics but I already knew this was going to be a race of attrition and that I needed a few laps to try to figure things out, I'm not going to mince my words or lie, I ABSOLUTELY HATED the race, all 16 laps of it, there wasn't one part of it that I thought, that's better, or, it's not doing that anymore, it was simply right, get it in to the corner, hope, then get out again, I honestly felt like I could only give about 60% of me in that race and that was a little too much, thinking let alone trying to give 61% would have seen me on my ear, basically I sat in 3rd trying hard not to try hard and despite getting a good run on Josh out of the final turn my bike just didn't have to speed to out drag or pass him before the line so 3rd it was.
After the race I was furious, the whole slow down lap I was sitting thinking how crap I'd rode, I was so frustrated though, it's not that I'm a bad loser, I'll finish 2nd, 3rd or 5th even happily as long as I know that I've given 100% but today for that race I just couldn't.
I have to apologise for my post race interview, saying Shit on live TV isn't cool and I know that, all I can do is say sorry and that it's a good job I'd had a whole slow down lap and the rostrum area to calm down a bit otherwise it would have been safer to not even do the interview full stop!!!!!!
A long, get to the bottom of everything debrief followed, I told my team exactly what the problems were and they could see on the data exactly what I was describing so I left them to come up with a plan, headed back to the motorhome, had lunch then my usual half an hour power nap, hopefully that'd make everything better for race 2!!!
For race two the guys came up with a plan, a totally different front fork setting and my usual front tyre, now the rest was up to me, go figure!!!
I hot a good start and lead into turn one from 3rd on the grid then tried rally hard to stay smooth, I pushed hard for a lap or two and had + 0 on my board so I thought right ok, try to save your tyres for a bit and see what happens, the course car then came out for a crash and stayed out for 2 or 3 laps and with 11 or 12 laps left I thought right lets do this, my bike was feeling better, not perfect but better and I had more confidence in the front because of it so I went for it again for a lap or 2 still got + 0 despite a couple of pretty fast laps so once again I just settled right down for three or 4 laps, with 5 laps to go I started to dig in a bit, got to +.3 and thought this could be the brake I needed then with 2 to go it went back down to +.0 by this point all I could do was try to be fast, smooth and hot every apex perfectly to maximise my exit speed, I did just that and rode slightly on the cautious side for the final lap, I made a small mistake going into the final turn and thought no no no, that's it, I've blown it but fortunately I held on to take the win!!!
To say I was happy is a bit of an understatement, I was absolutely elated, it wasn't so much the win, just the fact I could ride better, not perfect but better, that to me is what it's all about, Birdy pays me to race his bike for him yet I felt like the 1st race I was out on my priceless pride and joy that I didn't even want to get a fly splattered on let alone race, I might as well have done that race with one hand behind my back and a set of L plates on, that's how useless I felt and that's why i was so frustrated, I pride myself in giving 100% at everything I do and that's precisely why myself and PBM get on so well, they know I'll always give my all and give theirs in return.
I think it's very fair of me to say now that the little bit of top speed advantage we once had with the Kawasaki over some of the bikes in the field has now been well and truly negated by the others, Josh in particular moaned all year his bikes not fast enough but in race one my biggest problem with him was that despite the fact I could maybe run into tighter corners a little bit quicker I couldn't put myself in a position no matter how hard I tried to be alongside him to carry that speed into making a pass and 5 rounds in isn't the time to be making desperate out of control lunges from 3 or 4 bike lengths behind, the team now need to go and do some homework to try to improve our bike so that we can at least get alongside in order to be able to attempt to pass rather than using any advantage just to catch back up to the bike in front, they know that, I know that and everyone saw that so fingers crossed as I'll be giving 100% training wise between Snetterton and Brands they'll be working the same trying to improve our bike too.
Once again my apologies for the swearing thing on tv, hopefully you now have a better insight into my frustration, fingers crossed now that it's onwards and upwards again, roll on Brands hatch, I can't wait, take it easy, Shakey #67
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