Quick catch up!!!

Thought I'd take this opportunity to fire you guys a quick Blog, admittedly there's not a great deal to report right now but I guess a quick catch up anyway won't do any harm!!

Since the season finale back at brands things have been fairly quiet in my little world! we had a trip to Spain for half term which was supposed to be a week off just chilling but ended up turning into a cycling mission, it was nice though in the time that I wasn't on the push bike to really just relax, enjoy my family and enjoy life in general, the fact that the last day in October was 28 degrees and we spent a couple of hours catching rays by the pool helped too lol!!!

I've been hoping to make an announcement for a bit now regarding my plans for 2014, there was a chance I'd be able to do so straight after the final MOTO GP round at Valencia but there's been a few delays, it's not a drama though, I'm fairly certain that everything needed is in place and it's only a matter of time before I can say.

Myself and a good mate of mine brought ourselves some enduro bikes recently and managed to get out on them at a place called Enduroland the other weekend, it's funny you know, we both brought the trickest enduro bikes out there, myself a 300 2 stroke and Wag a 450 4 stroke, both 6 day limited edition ones so they look properly cool, I spent 20 odd minutes running mine in on the road the night before, then we rocked up Sunday morning, unloaded these pristine brand new bikes, rode for about an hour and a half over the course of about 3 hours then loaded back into the van two bikes that looked absolutely nothing like they did when we arrived!! I had such a fun day, it was my first time back on an off road bike in about 2 years and for pretty much the whole week after I was a bit stiff and sore, I'm not sure what hurt the most though, my body form all the silly little crashes I had or my stomach from all the giggling and laughing I was doing riding watching my pals slipping, sliding and falling about all over the place, it truly was a great day and I'm pleased I brought the bike, I even went to the trouble of jet washing it afterwards to see if it was still my bike under all the mud and crap lol, it's at my local dealer now though getting a full fettle up so it should be brand new by the time I collect it from there, I can't wait to get back out on it!!

Talking of the week after that day it was an interesting one for me, I went to see two different personal trainers as I'm right on the case for 2014, I know that if I just do what I normally do I'll start the season in good shape but I want to start next year in the best shape ever so it was important to enlist some help!!, Monday morning after the enduro riding I went over to Tunbridge wells for a bit of a fitness test with one of the guys, feeling like I'd been run over by a truck I guess the results were never going to be outstanding but I was pretty happy in all fairness with the way I performed, knowing myself that I've done next to nothing since Assen because of crashes etc I guess this was the worst I was ever likely to be some improvements should come fairly quickly!!

At the end of the week I went up to Kensington to see an other guy and did a work out with him too and that's the route I'm going to follow from here on in so hopefully well definitely we'll be seeing some big gains from the word go, funnily enough I'm sat on the train to Victoria now typing this on route to another torture session lol!!!!

Another pretty cool thing that's happened recently was getting to meet HRH Prince William up at the NEC show, it ended up being a bit of a mission to get it sorted with the organisers of the show claiming they couldn't help at all but then somehow managing to get Bradley Smith an arranged meeting but hey, what goes around and all that, fortunately for me the guys at Ducati UK are good people and the boss there managed to swing it for me, made the introduction and away we went, the Prince I can tell you is a very cool guy, we chatted a bit about Ducati's, riding in general and touched on racing then he wondered off for his look around the stand so that was an absolute honour and I'd like to say a big thanks to Tim Macabee from Ducati for sorting it for me!!

Next week we're off to the Czech Repuplic for just under a week which will be really nice, I love going there because it's so relaxing for me, don't get me wrong I'll be doing a bit of running to keep on top of things but 90% of the time it's kick back and relax! I'm hoping that Petra and I can disappear up to Prague for a day and a night too, I love at city and really enjoyed the three days we had there last year.

Whilst we're over there our dog's off to boot camp, not literally, I took her the other day over to a guy in Tunbridge wells who does residential training for dogs, she's having a two week stay there and basically should come back a far more balanced, calm and obedient dog, at least that's the theory lol, not only that it works well time wise with us going away.

Right, not much further to go now so I'm going to sign off, I'll be catching up with you guys as soon as I can make an announcement which hopefully will be soon, take care guys and girls, Shakey #67 

FINALLY,the Brands Hatch finale!!!

I'm not going to lie, I started typing this Blog during the brands hatch weekend! I got all the way though to qualifying maybe whilst I was there keeping it up to date so I wouldn't have so much left to do once the season finished but then the races happened and I just couldn't bring myself to finish it until now...

What a difference 12 months makes.. That may sound like a bit of a strange way to start a Blog but it's exactly, and I mean exactly what I thought as I turned in to the main entrance at Brands hatch on Thursday afternoon.

Now that difference, it wasn't that I entered through the paddock entrance the year before it was the massive difference to my approach this year compared to last, no, I didn't brake late, hand brake turn into the track lol before you start thinking what on earth is he on about!!

Basically the difference is, 12 months ago, I'd left Silverstone, had a small points lead but almost drove myself cuckoo thinking so so much about everything to do with BSB, sleepless nights, I had a few, constant day dreams, they never stopped, time in the gym was spent wondering or hoping should I say that none of my competitors were training as hard, I wanted it and I wanted it bad but almost too bad as it completely engulfed my life, I was snappy, on edge and not at all happy, pressure which some people talk about in these situations was so heavy that when the saying he looks like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders, I felt like I had the whole bloody galaxy on mine!!!

This year after Silverstone I left there in a good place, don't get me wrong I left on crutches which was far from ideal but I left there happy, really happy and let's be honest 1 point lead or 10 it didn't really matter, it was always going to be way too close to call so leaving Silverstone I left BSB full stop behind and got on with my life, I spent a lot of time going to physio, a lot of time with my family and a lot of time keeping a very watchful eye on our new puppy who obviously required lots and lots of attention, my body wasn't in a good place in terms of pain from the Assen and  Silverstone crashes but my head, that was cool, getting back to the entrance to Brands hatch now and what that 10 days did for me was make me almost talk to myself or think out loud as I drove into the entrance  "right then, that was a nice break, I guess this is where the Showdown starts" I said or thought at least with a smile on my face and I felt remarkably fresh and happy as I waited for the barrier to go up to let me in!!

From there on in the afternoon turned into a bit of a blur, tv, radio and photos etc saw the afternoon disappear in a flash, roll on Friday!!

Typically, and I mean typically Friday morning conditions were crap, I don't know if mother natures had some sort of BSB vendetta going on but it feels like just about every single first session we've had this year has start either wet or damp, like most with conditions being neither here nor there I sat out most of the session and literally did 2 or 3 laps at then end just to bed in a set of brake pads, talk about productive...not!!!!

For the afternoon session things finally started to dry up, conditions were ok, still a couple of tiny bits that were damp but the track was generally dry, my bike was working good, we obviously had our data from the brands hatch round in August but at the same time things have moved on a little since then too, we made a few little changes to the setting we started on throughout the session and towards the end threw a new pair of tyres at the job and despite a scrappy lap I did a time only 0.3 off of my qualifying time in August and was the only rider in the 1.25's 4 10th's clear of the rest, needless to say there was still a bit of work to be done but it was certainly a good start to what we hoped would be a dry weekend...

Unfortunately Mother Nature decided once again that it would be a good time to intervene, Saturday morning conditions were crap again, we went out and did some laps in order to have a direction by the time qualifying came around, the session went ok but I couldn't help but wish that things would dry out for qualifying..

Throughout qualifying it seemed the track was constantly changing and a combination of bright sun in places onto soaking wet tarmac made things even more tricky, we constantly throughout all three sessions had to change the bike to suit and eventually had a decent enough setting that enabled me to qualify on the front row of the grid in P2 which I was pretty happy about to say the least!! 

Being a triple header weekend it seemed like no time whatsoever before we were ling up on the grid for race one, the conditions were horrible, it seemed that the one thing that nobody from the organisers, the fans, the teams or riders wanted was going to happen, there was a very strong chance that the championship after all the great racing we'd had could potentially be decided by a correct tyre choice.

As the lights went out I got a good start and lead into turn one, immediately I lost a place to Josh, I thought this was going to suit us better sitting in behind him and I just thought you crack on, to basically cut a long story short I ended up third, basically when the track was wet the bike was good but as conditions started drying up as the race went on the bike kind of went away from me, sitting in the post race press conference it was interesting listening to Josh and Alex, it seems Josh was in a similar situation to me, when the track was real wet his bike was great as was mine but as the track dried out a bit we both started to struggle, Alex however was the opposite, he sat behind me for the majority of the race initially struggling but as the track dried out his bike setting started working better, with a few laps to go he passed me and at that point in time there wasn't anything left in the locker to fight him with.... 

For morning warm up the next day we made some pretty big changes to the bike, fortunately it was proper wet unlike the day before so it was a good chance to find a proper wet setting, I ended that session P1 by nearly a second so whilst I was hoping it was going to be dry I guess full wet wouldn't be so bad either!

Typically the weather messed about, nearly drying up, the sun even making the odd appearance then it would pour hard for a few minutes and ruin everything again.

I started race 2 from 3rd place so still on the front row and again got another good start, conditions this time were, how can I say, a bit more sketchy, to the point that I actually went out on the sighting lap on intermediate tyres because I figured that if the rain held off towards the end of the race they'd come into their own, the only trouble was on the sighting lap the track was still pretty wet in places and intermediate tyres are basically slick ie dry tyres with a few cuts in them so you can probably imagine what that did grip wise lol, I sat on the grid to the last possible minute trying to make a tyre decision, if the rain held off maybe inters would work but if it rained again which looked fairly likely you'd be snookered, oh well, not like this race was important!!! In the end I semi gambled and went wet front intermediate rear, let's suck it and see....

Mother Nature or mother F****r as I was aptly naming her at the time was once again playing her part in between races, why on earth she couldn't just take a day off and leave the sunshine with us I'll never know!!

Once again I got a good start and lead into turn one, I was pretty steady on the way in and got passed fairly quickly by Josh, the 1st laps were awful, I mean awful, it was pretty much all I could do to stay on the bike, I got a sign on my pit board saying Lowes out and couldn't believe it, I was going backwards pretty rapidly and every section of the track was a battle, I felt like a cross between a blind man, a man with no feeling in his arms and hands and a complete circuit rookie riding around, I'd already dropped to 8th when half way around Druids the rear of the bike came round on me and this time there was no way of saving it and down I went, do you know what though at that point whilst I was obviously very annoyed I wasn't bothered, all I could think and I mean all I could think was please god let the last race be dry, let us battle head to head, I want to win this thing and sketchy conditions or a correct tyre choice shouldn't determine the outcome of what's been either way a fantastic season of racing....

So then, the final race of the year, rules definitely worked against me BIG TIME, Alex who crashed on the opening lap and never even set a lap time was 8th on the grid but with me being so useless in the 2nd race I was starting on the 7th row, they might just as well have put me back in Swanley lol, ironically Nori was back there too, the two of us sandwiched Jenny Tinmouth on the grid!!!

My prayers weren't answered at all weather wise. Again, the track was pretty wet, again a change of setting to try to get the best of both worlds from the bike, a bike that would hopefully be good if it stayed properly wet but wouldn't fall to pieces if it went damp rather than full wet, this was it baby, let's do this!!

Sitting there at the back of the grid I never had the slightest element of doubt, in fact if anything I was super positive, I wanted this 4th title and sure it wasn't going to be easy from where I was on the grid but hey if BSB was meant to be easy then you'd be able to collect tokens and post of for the title, I knew I had to just keep my nose clean for the 1st lap then make up as much time as possible as soon as possible, I had to beat Alex and Alex had to beat me, whoever did, well, you do the maths!! The lights went out and we were away, I got a good initial launch and was steady up into and through Paddock, I'd made quite a few places already but there was quite a lot of spray, I took no notice whatsoever of the riders I was passing, through the spray I just kept looking for that Blue number 22, rider after rider I kept passing and eventually I could see him in a bunch, lap after lap I got closer, my pace was real good and I was feeling confident, eventually I passed him and I thought to myself right concentrate, concentrate like you never concentrated before, come on, let's do this, a few laps later for the first time in the whole race I looked at my pit board and it said P2, it dawned on me then that the difference in points between 2nd and 3rd would make me champion, I never even knew we were that far up the order, I was thinking there would be another group further up the track, despite lapping faster and faster I wasn't breaking Alex, my pitboard just kept reading +0 Lowes, I had there horrible thoughts about Saturdays race where he sat behind then pulled the pin at the end, I knew though that I was doing all I could and concentrated on not making any mistakes, with a couple of laps to go Alex came past, at that point a question from a journalist after Saturdays race "if that was the last race on Sunday to determine the championship could you or would you have tried to go with Alex?" My answer, "what do you think in a very disgruntled tone, do you think I'd give it way!!!???"

Alex did up the pace but so did I, so much in fact that the pair of us lapped over a second a lap faster than eventual winner Josh Brooke's, I was on Alex and was far from done, on the last couple of laps we WERE both on the ABSOLUTE LIMIT, Alex was making tiny mistakes and so was I, I had a plan for the last lap, I knew where I could be strong but going up into Druids I got in a tiny bit hot and for a fraction of a second I lost the front and went slightly wide meaning I couldn't get back on the gas, my plan was still to have a to out  the back of the track, I pushed really hard, in fact a little too hard into Surtees to make up some of the time I'd lost at Druids and again went a tiny bit wide, eventually Alex had enough to hold it together over the line and that was it, my dream 4th title gone.

I stopped with him at the bottom of Paddock hill to congratulate him and the 1st thing he said was Sorry!!! I laughed with him and said fair play mate, hats off, you did it today and I'm proud of you, I rode back to the pits gutted, absolutely gutted, if given this whole year my absolute all and a sketchy final day saw all that hard work go out of the window, I couldn't care less if I was 2nd or 10th, I f I haven't won I simply don't care. 

My team were great in park ferme, I apologised and told them I truly couldn't have done more and my crew chief replied, mate, we couldn't have asked for more, great job.

I'd like to now thank everyone that's been involved this year, naming you all will put another 20 minutes on this already month or so overdue blog but you all know who you are! I'm actually going  to sign off now! I'll fire up another Blog real soon, I promise, it's no excuse for this one being so late but it actually broke me finally typing this, I'm sat in a Costa thinking I can't believe I've finally finished this Blog, I've had little stabs at it ever since the season finished but every time I did I couldn't bring myself to type the bit about losing the title, here, finally it is, thanks everyone for taking the time to read it and despite scoring the most points again this year sorry to all my fans for not bringing home the prize, I can promise you hand on heart I tried!!!!

Take it easy guys and girls, talk to you soon Shakey #67 

Silverstone!!!

Believe it or not I couldn't wait for Silverstone to come around, it's strange though because whilst I was so so keen to get there as soon as humanly possible to get back on track I was also trying to slow down going as much as possible too as physio and getting back into training after the crash took a little bit more than I'd expected, don't get me wrong, I drove up feeling almost new but living day to day and racing a superbike are quite different lol!!!

On the Thursday before the event the organisers treated Alex, James and myself to another play in the Nissan GTR's around the track and I have to say it was something I was looking forward to, bearing in mind that the track was wet I could not believe how hard you could drive the things, the grip was unreal and the whole thing while it only last about 15 minutes or so was good fun!!

Things got off to a bit of an iffy start on Friday morning, I was laying in bed sparko when I kind of wore a bit to what sounded like someone sand blasting the motorhome roof, as I came around more I realised it was raining HARD, all I could think was can we not have just one completely dry race weekend this year!!

Fridays first session was of course wet, a few guys went out initially but we sat the session out until the last 20 minutes as the lap times weren't great anyway, I ended up doing just 5 pr 6 laps for two reasons mainly, 1st I had a brand new bike because the other was written off at Assen and 2nd If I didn't ride and Sunday we got rain there'd be no more wet practice as the morning session was wet, the bike felt fine as a bike but our wet setting wasn't very good so I just did the laps and got a feel for the track knowing what we'd need to change but not doing it with 5 minutes or so to go in the session.

Fortunately the afternoon session whilst not perfect was pretty much dry, that gave us a chance to get some dry laps in, lap times weren't especially spectacular but with a few damp patches here and there and the fact it was only Friday afternoon I didn't want to be firing the bike at the scenery when the rest of the weekend was forecast dry!!

Saturday morning however, well thats a whole new story, the track was dry but pretty cool temperature wise, I waited a few minutes before heading out and as soon as the boys improved on their lap times from the previous day I headed out, my bike immediately felt much better than the day before, so much better in fact that my first flying lap was something like 1.5 or 2 seconds a lap faster!!, that fast in fact that when my lap time popped up on my dash I almost had to do a double take!!,my next lap was a bit off but then I was straight back into good lap times, I was +1.5 seconds per lap on everyone else and consistent too, but then, then it all went wrong, I approached the complex on another real good lap got through the left, perfect, accelerate out, perfect,close the throttle into Luffield then peel in, the next thing I know I'm in a whole world of pain laying in the gravel trap, basically as I chopped the throttle and flicked the bike in the rear of the bike decided to try to overtake the front then gripped flicking me HIGH over the high side and into the gravel, t not what you need!!!

Somehow straight after the crash I found myself instantly in the medical centre but from there on in the world seemed to hit the fast forward button, initially I didn't feel terrible, don't get me wrong I was hurt but seemed to have things under control but then, then I tried to stand up and put weight on my right leg, that's when it hit me, maybe like one of those taser gun things, a shock of lightning up through my groin and into my spine, it completely done me the 1st time it hit, the most intense sharp short pain ever, sat normally I couldn't really feel it, but my foot down again and BANG, there it was, this wasn't cool!!

Eventually after x rays etc on my pelvis and spine the medics after me pleading agreed to let me qualify, that fast forward thing I mentioned saw the pleading happen about 30 minutes before qualifying!!

My first qualifying lap was something else, I've never felt so useless on a bike, so sore, so tight, so painful just to move, fortunately though Q1 and 2 went ok, then I just had to bite the screen for the final effort and managed to produce a lap fast enough to qualify P2, I think it's fair to say that was a pretty good effort!!!

After savage amounts of physio, a half hour session on my turbo trainer and a hot bath in one of the team guys hotel room I got my head down for the night but the morning wasn't good, straight back to physio before morning warm up, just two or three laps in the warm up session then another load of physio and before I knew it I was sat on the grid ready for the start of race 1..

I managed a good start of P2 and lead through the Sthil power award, Alex as I fully expected passed me going into Stowe at the end of the back straight which for me was perfect, I know he has real good pace around that place so if I concentrated hard and tried to forget about how much I was hurting then I hoped I'd be able to go with him and maybe get dragged away from the rest of the guys, there was a point about half way maybe through the race where I started loosing a bit of concentration and making the odd mistake, I was starting to struggle on the bike, moving around and being mobile enough to catch slides or move my body into whatever positions necessary was getting hard, I couldn't help but think I CANNOT give up on this, this is a championship on the line here, fortunately for me whilst Alex was setting a bloody good pace I was able to go with him, that did eventually drag us both away from the rest and as soon as I saw his bike starting to move and slide about a bit I thought I'm gonna be there or thereabouts for this race, all of a sudden it was like a dose of painkiller in me!! That last lap was mega, Alex and I passed each other a couple of times then on the run to the line I got alongside him, we went through the final turn side by side, 5th gear pinned but I knew when not if my rear tyre spun I'd clip him so I had to roll slightly in order to not potentially take us both out and with that I lost to him by a 10th of a second, a result, a race, a finish that given the circumstances I was over the moon with, having watched him for a lot of laps I knew where we needed to improve my bike too so it was, podium, debrief, dinner, physio, power nap, race two! 

Having somehow got the fastest lap in race one I started the 2nd race from Pole position, I got another great start, lead for a lap or 2, got passed by Alex, then back into the lead, then passed by Alex, then back to the lead, it seemed to me that my bike was slightly better due to the settings changes and after a few initial laps of discomfort I seemed to settle in real good, this time we made more of a race of things and I was really enjoying myself, my bike was working great it was just that Alex's strong points seemed to be my weak points and vice versa so when he pulled on me he pulled big then I had to work real hard to get back on him, I lead a bit towards the end of the race and knew it was going to be tough, having made a mistake on the last lap of the first race I really wanted the 2nd one to be better but both of us were on the limit, both having moments everywhere and before I knew it we were back I to Luffield and heading towards the final corner with Alex leading and protecting his line, I thought I'm gonna have to pull something pretty special to win it from here, then Alex dived into the final turn fairly tight to block me so I hung out, hit a late apex pinned to the throttle stop in 5th gear, spun a bit, lifted the bike and managed to JUST pip Alex to the line by 0.0012 of a second but the funny thing was as I Pulled the move I was so excited, so happy that I almost knew it'd got it, I celebrated immediately because to be honest it was such a big move that even if I hadn't won I was over the moon with my effort!!

Sure enough on the slowdown lap I saw I had the win, and saw the margin, I was ecstatic, as I rode back along the Brooklands straight I stopped to thank all the medics and physio staff that had done so so much for me since Saturday morning then as I got to Luffield the crowd erupted, I was so so happy and if you were amongst them then please accept my gratitude for all your support over the weekend.

I really gave it my all to try to keep this thing going, Brands is gonna be tough but if I have as much fun riding as the two showdown rounds we've had so far then you guys are in for a big treat if you're coming to the finale!!

For now though it's gonna be some full on physio sessions to try to get myself back in the best shape possible before brands hatch, hopefully see you there! take it easy guys and girls! Shakey #67

Assen.. Let the games begin!!!!!

Well... He we are, the show down.. It's funny you know because having been on both the good and the bad sides of the showdown I'm actually feeling remarkably relaxed this time around, I guess that looking at it realistically I had a decent lead in the normal part of the championship and that's been recently whittled down a little but as it stands I now have just a 6 point lead in the championship because of my podium credits so I simply have to treat these next three rounds exactly as I have the rest of the rounds so far this year, work hard on Friday, ride fast on Saturday for a good grid spot then try to win races on the Sunday, simples!!!!

We had a test on the Wednesday before Assen at Snetterton, a track that for one reason or another doesn't seem to suit our bike so well and despite the track being really slippery for some unknown reason it was a good chance to test and try things that you just wouldn't want to risk trying in a 40 minute BSB session, I managed about 8 laps around there with my new team mate Nori Haga and both of us got through a rake of stuff.

Typically moving forward Friday morning was a bit damp to start, I actually missed the first 15 minutes or so of the session as the lap times were way off what they should've been so we sat and waited, when I finally got out the track was pretty much dry so work started from en on in. I really like the Assen circuit, it's great fun to ride, fortunately my bike felt pretty good, I knew we would need to improve a bit in some key areas but for a first free practice it was steady away!!

For the afternoon the team had made some changes to the bike, basically in the morning session the bike was great on the front end but running wide on corner exit and in the afternoon we over compensated a little and the bike felt a bit nervous on the front but the rear felt solid so the thing held a line like its life depended on it, however been so solid I lost a lot of side grip and feeling from the rear tyre so Saturday morning would see some more changes!!!  

To say that Saturday free practice went well is a bit of an understatement, my first flying lap put me P1 then the following lap I went half a second faster again, the changes the team had made to the bike had definitely improved it, I'd found a second a lap overnight and felt really comfy doing the times, in fact I managed an 8 or 9 lap run all I'm the 37's so I was made up with life, I lead the whole session but after pitting to make some small changes I had a problem with the bike and had to sit out the final 8 minutes of the session while the boys fixed it but it was all good!!

Qualifying went really well, we were still making changes to the bike all the way through the sessions and in Q3 the important one I came round after my first flying lap and did a 1.36.6, I was chuffed to bits with that having qualified last year on a 1.38.3, I had a stab at another lap but made a mistake exiting the hairpin and whilst it was still a 36 it was slightly slower, Alex managed an incredible lap, 2 or 3 tenths quicker than me so fair play to him for that but having seen my race rhythm earlier in the day then qualifying a close 2nd to Alex I was in a very good frame of mind to say the least!!!

We knew that from qualifying we could still improve the bike a little bit so we tried a different setting in morning warm up but somewhat typically for us while the bike was better for me in certain areas and indeed the main area that we made the changes for in the first place namely braking and corner entry stability it quite dramatically affected the bike in a big way in other areas which meant that the negatives unfortunately outweighed the positives about 70/30% so it would be back to qualifying's settings for race 1!!!

As has been the case pretty much all year I got a good start as the lights went out, I did however slightly mess up my braking for turn 1 allowing Alex to nip up the inside, that pushed me a tiny bit wide and I lost another place, quickly however I got it all together and settled in nicely!! 

After a few laps I started to make some moves and eventually I found myself at the front, I felt real comfortable at the pace I was running and although I had +0 on my pit board I figured there was no point driving myself mad and using up my rear tyre trying to brake away as no matter what lap times I was doing I wasn't making any head way in that respect, Alex came past me eventually and I sat behind him realising he didn't seem to be able to go any faster so I passed him back, then with a lap and a half to go he passed me again so I thought right, it's on now!!! We had so much fun on that last lap and must have passed each other ten times, it was great, the only problem was he ran up the inside of me at the penultimate turn and in turn ran a bit wide which left me no opportunity to pass straight back again so after trying to get a run on him though the final chicane I ended up second. 

For race two we had a little bit of a plan, no major changes just a few little tweaks to hopefully improve the bike just a little, as the lights went out this time I got a great start AND never messed up my braking into turn 1, I lead past the Sthil power award board too which is good as I'm currently leading that little challenge, funny how a £500 power tools voucher can get you all excited isn't it lol!!!

I lead for the first lap or so then Alex came past but I soon re passed him and the scene was set for another Assen battle, unfortunately though on lap 4 Alex attempted a run on me up the inside at the FAST turn 15 but the gap just wasn't there and he hit the side of my bike at the back so hard that it literally knocked me straight off the bike at 270km/h according to the data on my bike, now as strange as this might sound literally the instant it happened all I could think about was John Hopkins and Toni Elias who both crashed at that exact same spot and both broke their legs badly, I was literally sliding along thinking slow down, slow down, needless to say I eventually hit the gravel, rolled over what felt like 20 times and eventually came to a stop, now obviously at this point I didn't even know what had happened, there were no other bikes there, no other riders yet I knew I must've been hit because I certainly hadn't made a mistake..

Eventually I ended up in the medical centre and heard what actually happened, i already felt like I'd been run over by about four trucks, slugged it out for 12 rounds with Mike Tyson and knew I'd hurt my left leg which as well as being as dead as a dodo had a cut across the back of it, I couldn't see the race anywhere and heard that Alex won and I thought oh no, 24 points, that shit's gonna be tough to pull back but then some guys from my team and my wife came in saying the incident was under investigation, so I'm laying there in the medical centre and the next thing I know the phone rings in there and a medic says it's Stuart Higgs, BSB series director, he says are you ok, to which I replied not really, what happened he said, I replied you tell me!! He replied the incident's under investigation and when you're done in the med centre we all need a meeting, ok I said and that was that..

Myself, my team guys and Alex and some of his team guys along with Stuart, a data logging man, a load of CCTV, some on bike footage then sat down and to cut a long story short went though everything and the final outcome as you'll already know was Alex was excluded from the result, I was neither hoping nor wanting that to be pushed from my side but obviously it keeps my championship alive, I'm now thinking of nothing other than getting myself fixed up and coming back stronger for Silverstone, I genuinely believe Alex when he said he made a mistake, his data logging shows it and without gloating I'm happy about still being in front, now however we have to put all of that behind us and hope for more luck at Silverstone and Brands hatch because I certainly didn't come this far to give up on a 4th BSB title now, everything's crossed now that I'll be as fit and strong as ever when I line up for Silverstone's races, here's hoping we can jump back up on that top step of the podium...... TWICE!!!

Take it easy guys and girls, Shakey #67

Donington park!!

It seemed like a long old time ago since my winless round back at Cadwell park and I'm not gonna lie that winless round was a statistic that I wanted to put to bed as soon as possible, Donington though would be an interesting round as I never got to race there last year because of the shoulder injury at Cadwell so we'd have to wait to see what this year brings!!

The start didn't exactly get off to a flyer, as you will have probably seen on the news there was a MASSIVE 120 odd car pile up right near my house and it threw the surrounding areas into absolute turmoil, I'd planned to leave mid morning, head to Milton Keynes to see the guys at Corley cycles and meet up with a good mate for a coffee then get to Donington, to for a bit of a cycle for a couple of hours or so then drop into race weekend mode, with the accident though that all got thrown clean out the window and I never even got to Donington until around 6pm then it was straight into a Eurosport interview then straight out to dinner with the team and the guys from K Tech!!!

Having arrived in like 29 degrees temperature in shorts I was a bit disappointed to wake Friday morning to the sound of pouring rain, it was that bad in the morning that we never even bothered getting changed into leathers and just watched the session which was a bit of a non event to be honest, it was so frustrating because I just wanted to get out and get riding!!

Things didn't look a whole lot better for the afternoon session but quite a few of the boys headed out onto the track so I left it until about 15 minutes from the end of the session and headed out for a look, initially the bike felt dreadful, Donington however is notoriously slippery in the wet so with that in mind I did a lap or two to bed in some new brake pads then popped back into the pits to make some changes, unfortunately with the time we had left there was no time to make a big enough change as I felt we were quite a long way off setting wise and because of it I was having to ride to about 50 odd % of my wet riding ability but the small change was ever so slightly better so I improved a tiny bit riding wise and finished only 1.4 off of the front which considering how useless I felt I was pretty happy with!!

As you can probably imagine waking Saturday morning to sun shine and a dry track I was in a pretty good mood and really looking forward to getting out on track, free practice 3 actually went really really well, I used one pair of tyres to check race distance duration and for the majority of the session I remained half a second faster than everybody else, right in the dying minutes a bunch of guys fired in a new pair of tyres dropping me to P3 but I was feeling really good and really positive about our performance.

Throughout the qualifying sessions we made a few more little steps with the bike and in all fairness what I asked the team and K tech for they gave me its just that in doing so for the final session when I knew what time I was capable of the changes we made basically just made my bike a little bit too unpredictable, sure, we increased rear grip which was an area we needed to improve but in doing so I felt a step behind the bike the whole time and ultimately it cost me, I was happy enough with P4 thinking that's a front row that'll do only to find out that the organisers have now made Donington for some unknown reason a 3 bike per row grid, I get it at places like Cadwell and Knockhill but Donington... REALLY?????

The other thing which really annoyed me was not making the lap time I thought I had in me but hey, there's no points or podium credits for qualifying so lets get morning warm up out of the way and see what the races bring!!  

Saturday evening we sat down with the team and K tech to make a plan for the following day, we knew we needed to make a step with the bike and it wasn't going to be a click or two of compression or rebound damping so after going through the data together and me explaining my feelings we formulated a cunning plan...

Morning warm up went ok, not great but ok, our bike is quite sensitive to change and typically when we throw something new at it we need time to balance things and maintain the new positives whilst improving any negatives, after warm up k tech and the boys In my team sat down and then came up with a big plan, let me tell you when your crew chief says before the 1st race "right this race day is now going to be one big test" you know they've gone big lol!!!

I got a great start of the 2nd row and slotted straight into 3rd, exiting turn one I went under James Ellison into the top of Craner curves and as soon as I did I thought crikey I'm committed now, I hope these bloody changes work!!!

Fortunately yes was the answer to that question!!, after a few laps getting to grips with the differences the bike just seemed to get better and better and it was almost like I was some sort of novice trying to learn, understand and push the limits as the race wore on, after about 6 or 7 laps I'd found a real good rhythm and had worked out exactly what was what, I knew my strengths and I knew also where I wasn't so good, towards the end of the race with a lap to go I decided to try to make my move, I got into Coppice real good, got turned but then had a big slide being a bit over eager on the throttle so I knew it was all going to come down to the last lap, I lined up for exactly the same manoeuvre, got in good, got turned good, got on the gas good, got a mega run through third gear, just started thinking yes this is gonna work, shifted to 4th and bang, a false neutral, a word beginning with B and ending in ollocks came out rather loud and it was all I could do from there on in to get to the line in 2nd, I was real happy though and definitely had a big smile on my face, believe it or not after a long debrief with my team including the K tech guys I left them to make a plan and was really looking forward to race two!!

For race two the boys had once again made some changes, it's funny you know the whole trust thing, you see if I'd explained my feelings on the bike to myself and came up with the conclusion that my boys did I would have thought no don't be silly but seeing as we'd made such a big improvement since morning warm up I figured I'd just roll with it!!

I got a great start once again and to be honest I could pretty much get away with just saying I went bloody fast, half a second a lap faster than I qualified and 3 or 4 10th"s faster than my best in race 1, I stayed in 2nd pretty much the whole race, managed to pass Alex who lead the whole race on the last lap, get passed back then nearly drag him to the line but ended up 2nd again, that'll pretty much cover it lol!!

To be perfectly honest I was made up after the two races, we weren't in good shape after warm up so I'd like to thank my suspension guys Chris and Nash from K tech, my crew chief Johnny, Keith's crew chief Brains and the teams data guy Angus for all their hard work, I'm gutted I couldn't win one for them but it wasn't for a lack of trying, the boys did great and whilst I'm never happy to not win I've never been happier with two seconds, we earns them that weekend and achieved them through nothing other than hard work and determination!!

Now it's onwards and upwards, the show down is here and my championship lead has been cut due to podium credits to just 6 points, we've got to now treat each race weekend as we have all year, work hard and try to win, 6 points means f all and seems cruel after 3/4's of the season being so successful but it is what it is, I can't wait to get going again now!!!!! Thanks so much for all your support all weekend, it means a lot, take it easy guys and girls, Shakey #67   

Cadwell park

Well for some reason things didn't get off to a very good start where Cadwell park was concerned, mind you the brunt of that was purely down to getting a few bits and pieces boxed off at home before I left and the rest was purely down to the bank holiday traffic, to be honest I'm not really sure what this bank holiday is for but after my trip up I'm guessing it's for national drive like an idiot day or maybe national stay in the outside lane at no more than 55mph, who knows, maybe one of you guys reading this can fill me in and bring me up to speed on what it's really for lol!!! 

Anyway, enough already, we're here now and that's all that matters, Friday night was quite amusing, we always go out for dinner in the evening but usually there isn't a fun fair at the track and when we got back to the circuit myself and my crew chief did a reverse bungee jump, he was so funny, screaming for about 60% of the time we were on it, I liked it that much that I had another go straight after with my team mate Keith lol!!

Somewhat typically the first session of the weekend was hampered by wet weather which was far from ideal as we have some stuff we need to try to test, as it was we went out to try the bike in the wet, we haven't actually done that many wet laps this year so now was as good a time as any, the session went well despite a couple of little moments and a not ideal feeling from the front of the bike but the biggest problem came when I pulled back into the pits.....

Basically to cut a long story short, a few days ago I leant into one of our cars and took my daughter out but I immediately swung her straight up in the air above my head and the instant she went up something went in my back, I gently carried her in and explained what happened and after a couple of days as good as forgot all about it, now though I'd done a 10 or so lap run in the wet, pulled into the pits, swung my leg to get off the bike and completely locked up, eventually I got off but I don't know if you've ever had the same thing where you try to straighten up but every time you lift up you literally can't get a breath, not ideal!!

We called it a day for the rest of the session and headed to the circuit physio's to try to get loosened off and to be honest it initially didn't have anywhere near the affect I was hoping it would, I was in a bit of a bad place!!

As the afternoon wore on some tablets and the Physio had me feeling a bit better, the afternoon track session was dry and to be honest I figured that just getting to the end of the session would be a massive improvement on last year lol, the bike was working pretty good in the dry so we stuck at it out there on one set of tyres to ensure taking them over race distance, a couple of guys fired a new set of tyres at their bikes towards the end of the session so we dropped from 2nd down to 4th but it's all cool.

We knew we could improve the bike going into the final free practice and we had a good plan, I started the session with a new pair of front forks that had a completely different setting in compared to my usual ones and despite the track having quite a few damp ish patches from the overnight rain I immediately improved my time from the day before, the bike was a definite overall improvement but as is so often the case the setting needed some work on it to get the most out of it so I came in and the boys made a change which to be fair made things a little worse so one final quick fix saw us end the session P2 to Alex who'd tested here last week or whenever it was so it wasn't all bad.

Qualifying ended up going pretty good to be fair, we were still chasing set up all the way through with the new forks and stuff and trying different rear shocks etc, we kind of got it all sorted or so we thought then Q2 we seemed to struggle for grip a bit, we put it down to a possibly iffy rear tyre and cracked on for Q3 and despite earning a decent and somewhat important 2nd I was very disappointed with my lap time and felt we had a much better lap in us, maybe it wasn't the rear tyre then was the conclusion....

Race day came and with it so did some decent track temperature, I went into race one feeling pretty good, we knew Alex was going to be strong and fully expected him to try to go the second the lights went out but as the did and he did I got on the back of him and just sat there, I love watch Alex riding apart from obviously when the chequered flag's about to come out lol and Cadwell was no different, Alex set a real steady pace, and with that pace I saw him having the odd little moment here and there and I was sat behind at like 80% thinking this is absolutely perfect, to be honest the only thing that would have made Ot slightly better would be +1 or something on my board so I knew it was just he and I but unfortunately due to the pace my board said pretty much the whole race +0, after sitting there and conjuring up a cunning plan I decided to leave it till four or five laps from the end then try to pull the pin and go, the only problem with my plan that I'd underestimated however was that Alex had the same plan so there we were 5 laps from the end doing high 1.28's on cruise control and when I went to go we start knocking the best part of a second of a lap off the times for the final four laps, the concerning thing for me was how my bike reacted to that speed difference so after collecting 2nd to Alex I had a chat with the boys for a plan for race 2!!

With some slightly different settings in the bike that my crew chief was as good as certain would give me a race winning package I lined up on the 2nd row in P5, my problem had been that I'd sat behind Alex and made no effort for a fast lap so I got a bit caught out and ended up on row 2..

I'm not going to drag on about race 2, I got a decent start but it all went to pot from there, 2 or 3 corners in I realised I had a problem with the bike, basically the setting was great but the only variable wasn't, I must've got a bit of a duff rear tyre because I got dropped by the front 4, finished 4th because of Josh's crash and the rear tyre looked like it hadn't done 5 laps let alone an 18 lap scrap around Cadwell park, I was so unhappy as you can probably imagine, I tried so so hard in that race too, I just didn't have any feeling for what was happening underneath me, fortunately though when the team got the bike back they down loaded the data and could see immediately that the tyre was the problem so whilst it was incredibly annoying the only blessing was that it happened now and not in the showdown because at Cadwell it cost me 3 podium credits at the most but in the showdown that would have been 12 points... a BIG difference!!!

I'm now really looking forward to getting to Donington, Cadwell has been the first round all year that I didn't win at least one race so hopefully we'll get that little glitch ironed out there!! Take it easy guys and girls, Shakey #67

 

Oulton park 2 2013...

Two or three weeks isn't really that long an amount of time is it,that's all it had been since we last raced at Brands hatch but in that space of time quite a bit has happened. First and foremost we as family Byrne got a couple of weeks away in Spain, it was meant to be a holiday but wit the showdown looming around the corner I took my bicycle to ensure I got some training done too, 8 rides and just over 500 miles later I'm actually pretty relieved to come racing just to get a bit of a rest lol!!!!

Oulton park then, a triple header, a cool track, hopefully some small improvements to our bike, some good training done, all to play for!!

Typically here the first session started wet, fortunately right at the end of the session it dried out, I got about 5 or 6 laps in and everything felt there or thereabouts, we ended the session fastest without taking any risks and had some data to look at going forward so all good.

The afternoon session was dry, because we'd done so little an amount of laps in first practice we started the session on the used tyres, I got in a decent enough rhythm early on and sat behind Kiyo for a few laps as we circulated together, we'd made some changes to the bike since the first session and whilst some points were ok some weren't quite so good, after doing near on race distance I got the in board and came in to talk to the guys, a small change was made again and a pretty big change engine management wise and off I went again, the bike immediately felt much stronger power wise, it actually isn't or wasn't but the feeling was good, with my tyres scrubbed i got my head down to push on, Alex at that point had half a second or so on me, my first flyer was going great, the bike felt good, I had Michael Rutter about three seconds up the track to chase down but about halfway through my lap another rider pulled in behind Michael and blocked my lap completely, the positive thing about it was I ended up matching Alex's time on my 6th lap so it was all good, I knew after the engine changes we'd made we needed to take another step for Saturday morning but. I felt really positive with the changes made and couldn't wait to start riding the following day!!  

Friday evening a I got out for a bit of a cycle around the track which was fun, only 20 odd miles just to spin my legs a bit, I hadn't ridden my bicycle since Monday because of travelling so it was nice to get out albeit only for an hour!!  

I'm pleased to say that the changes we made seemed to be a step in the right direction, the bike was working really well and I was enjoying riding it, qualifying went pretty good, I'm never much of a Pole man as I've said many a time before my aim is always to get on the front row and that we did, I also managed to lap a quarter of a second faster than I had back in may which was a good step but the really pleasing thing was the fact I was less than a 10th of a second off of Alex who claimed Pole so P2 for the afternoons race it was then!!

With this weekend being a triple header with so many points, podium credits and a very strong realistic chance of cementing our place in the showdown it was important to use my head, I got a great start when the lights went out and settled in well over the first few laps, eventually I got onto the back of James Ellison who was leading and hats off to him he was setting a really fast pace, I was riding around the whole time thinking of Brands a couple of weeks ago when James sat on my back wheel all race long, I was more than comfortable on his wheel but there were places he was strong and places I was but unfortunately mine came immediately after his so he'd open a gap then I'd close it, the whole race I was on his wheel thinking I need to pass but all I kept doing was catching right back up to him and simply couldn't put my bike in a position to pass so P2 it was..

My lap time in that race qualified me on Pole for the 1st of the two races the following day and with morning warm up passing without any dramas we were back on the grid before we knew it!!

I had a plan for race 2, that plan was to get out front and try to stay there, initially Alex lead and stayed there for a good few laps but once I got in to the lead I managed to keep it all the way to the flag despite a fair bit of pressure from the guys behind and in doing so I took my 50th all time BSB win, when I arrived in the podium area the organisers had two big banners, funnily enough one with a five and one with a zero with loads of pics on so that was a lovely touch!!

For the final race of the day I knew things were going to be difficult, we were all on a really similar pace and were all fast in particular sections of the circuit, I once again got to the front and lead for the majority of the race however this time I lead at a consistently faster pace, it was weird in a way because although my pace was faster I wasn't trying any harder, at one point with about 3 or 4 laps to go I had +.3 on my board, I was trying to maintain my pace riding my lines etc then Josh came underneath me at turn one, some bloody .3 I thought, I managed to pass him straight back but not long after he was back through again, whilst I could live with his pace it looked like he'd done the perfect job of conserving his tyre because whilst his bike was no faster he just had that little bit more initial grip than me that was punching him off the turns real good, in the end it was enough and another P2 for me, that's two races that weekend lost by a 10th of a second each!!!!

Upon reflection I'm pretty happy with the weekend though, we definitely made some good steps, steps that we can build on with the a rapid solicitors Kawasaki, we know what we need to do to improve too, it's not like we're where we are and don't know which way to turn, I'm happy too because we just completed round 7 of the championship and in my opinion that's the first time all year I've genuinely been beaten, not that I want to get beat, don't get me wrong for that I'm gutted but its testament to the job we've done as a team so far that it's not happened until now and as I said we know what we need to do to improve so its all good.

I said it on TV and I'm going to take a minute to say it again now, I'd like to dedicate that 50th win which is a bit of a milestone to my boss Paul Bird, I haven't counted how many but I can assure you a pretty big percentage of those wins have been down to the bikes, team and support Paul's put into my career, big thanks Birdman!!!

Now it's onwards and upwards, at the beginning of this season I hoped to achieve the big 5 0 this year, now I've done it and there's still five rounds to go, fingers crossed we'll be able to add a good few more wins to that tally and hopefully the small matter of a record breaking 4th BSB title.... Now that, would make me happy!!!

Take it easy guys and girls... See you at Cadwell Shakey #67