Oulton park round 2 2014!!

So then, following on from my well overdue first round Blog last week i decided it’s high time i got cracking with this one to bring you fully up to speed with all the going’s on from Oulton park. Being a bank holiday round i was getting a bit jittery on the friday waiting to travel up, i’d gone up to Oulton and back the previous week and had a 7 hour journey up and a pretty savage trip back too so i wasn’t looking forward to another long day in the car, typically me i’d arranged all sorts of bits and pieces that i’d either not got round to or simply forgot about so my mate Wag and i ended up leaving about 3 hours behind schedule, in fact at the time we finally left i was meant to be meeting my friend and sponsor in Milton Keynes to collect my new bicycle!!!

i think actually a quick shout has to go to Sean from Mavic for sorting said new bike for me, as you probably know i’m a bit of a fan of cycling when it comes to my training and Sean and Mavic sorted me out a properly amazing deal on a new Pinarello Dogma, the same bike Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome won the Tour dr France on, i wish it could make me pedal like those boys but unfortunately it won’t, that said i’ll now look flipping cool even if i’m dolloping along getting overtaken by milk floats lol!!!!

Anyway, finally we arrived at Toddington services to meet Sean and collect the bike and after all the excitement of seeing it and having a quick blast around the service area car park it was back on the road again for Wag and i.

Eventually, unfortunately a good few hours later we finally arrived at Oulton park!!

I have to say that all the way there i was thinking about how tough the weekend was going to be, sure we’d been fast in all testing etc but and we won the first two races of the season but we were heading deep into yamaha land, that bike is so so strong there and i knew i was going to be right up against it trying to beat Josh there, i also knew Josh was super pumped and very hopeful of results similar if not better than previous riders, this was going to be far from a walk in the “Park” if you pardon the pun!!!!!

Having tested at the track as i mentioned earlier we were already semi up to speed on the saturday morning free practice session, we had a few ideas after looking at the data of the direction we’d need to work in and made a few appropriate changes throughout the session.

To be fair my bike was working really really well, throughout practice sessions my crew chief Johnny and Chris my K Tech suspension man chipped away and chipped away and the bike just got better and better, free practice three came to an end with me having a run out on a new rear tyre and going 0.6 clear of the entire field and managing my first 1.34 second lap, i was pretty chuffed with that considering it wasn’t a perfect lap and i got a bit of traffic too, let’s see what qualifying brings then…

We started Q1 with a new front and a new rear tyre and the plan was to use the new set in Q1 and Q2 then go new front new rear for the final session, with that in mind i did an out lap and one flyer to initially go P1, the time wasn’t that fast but i knew it’d be more than enough to get through to Q2 so i sat out the rest of the session.

Q2 i went out on the same tyres as i said before and managed to get back into the 34’s again, a 34.9, Josh had done a 34.9 in Q 1 then a 34.8 in Q2 so i knew it was going to be tight in Q3, i dug in and put in a pretty good lap, it wasn’t perfect but pretty good and when i saw 1.34.5 come up on my dash i was chuffed to bits, i actually thought if you go faster than that you can have the bloody pole lol!!! As it turned out i’d done enough to take Pole by .3 of a second so my first royal London watch was on route ;-)

We had a plan for morning warm up regarding race tyres, i felt we’d definitely done our homework on the harder (safer) option but there was a possibility we could make the softer tyre work for the race, especially if the temperature got up a bit more, our plan however was scuppered by overnight rain and far cooler track temp so unless the temperature really picked up we knew exactly what our tyre choice was going to be..

Race 1 then, as i’ve said, i wasn’t really expecting to be starting from Pole but was happy to nonetheless, i got a decent ish start and lead initially but pretty much straight away the course car came out, obviously being at the front you never know the reason until you come back around to where the incident happened and i have to say on that first pass at the top of cascades we went through what vaguely resembled a motocross track and i looked at Josh as if to say this race needs stopping, we peel in to the top of cascades touching the rev limiter in 4th gear so probably approaching 130-140mph and i didn’t really want to be the first guy to find out if they’d cleaned all the mud and dust etc sufficiently!!!

fortunately however atet another couple of laps behind the course car the track was looking pretty good, as the course car pulled off i got on the gas and away we went, i was pretty cautious the first few times across the top of where the mud had been but nevertheless started to build up a bit of a lead, at one point the lead got up to 1.5 seconds and with about 4 or 5 laps to go i concentrated on staying consistent, the gap started coming down and i thought hmm, i know who that’ll be but rather than panicking and trying to pull away again i stayed calm and maintained my rhythm, for the last few turns i rode a little bit more defensively then exiting the final turn i drove hard to the finish line to hold off Josh to take the first race of the day.

The only thing that was going to affect us for race two was going to be track temperature but with that not changing dramatically we just made a little change to the rear of the bike and were good to go for race two, Josh had lapped slightly faster than me in the first race so for this one i would start from second but i was cool with that so it was a case of sit and wait for the lights to go out and… go go go!! 

Once again i got a decent ish start, and slotted straight in to 3rd, i made a move on James Ellison into the fast left hander Island bend as Josh was in the lead and i didn’t want him sneaking away, that move worked and a lap or two later i tried the exact same move on Josh, he never gave way though and held his line but ran slightly wide so i passed him into Shell oils hairpin, on the way i the i heard a horrible scraping noise and honestly thought i’d clipped him or he’d just caught my bike on the way in and he’d gone down, it was weird because i never for some reason got fully on it on the exit of the turn and i was trying out of the corner of my eye to see if there were yellow flags across the track on the entry to Shell showing a rider down, then bugger me as i peeled into the Fulstons chicane Josh came back past me and caught me well off guard, there i was thinking oh no, i’m sure my move was clean, it wasn’t my fault blah blah blah and the next thing i knew he was overtaking me!!!

To cut a long story short i followed him from there on in for the whole race, there were plenty of places i was faster but a particular section that he was able to pull a bit on me, i sat there for the last few laps planning my attack, i knew i’d have to pass him real early in the lap or he'd be in with a good shout of passing me back but i just couldn’t get enough of a run early enough in the lap to make a pass, on the last lap i had a proper go, Josh was under pressure and making a few little mistakes but trying hard to capitalise i made a mistake myself, i set myself up for a big run to the line as Josh had gone in tight but the Yamaha had the legs off that turn and Josh pipped me by exactly the same amount as i’d beaten him in the first race, 1 10th of a second.

Now i have to admit i’m never happy to finish second but i’ve taken a great deal of positivity from the Oulton park weekend, my bike was great, my Pole time was real fast, i won the first race, our times in race two were super fast and consistent and finally we ran Yamaha who’ve dominated there recently so so close and almost had another double, for me that was a massive weekend, believe it or not i’m actually gutted we’ve got such a big break now as i’m really enjoying the season so far!! 

That said we have a couple of nice breaks planned now, we’re off to Czech republic for a week to see the in laws which should be great, usually Petra and i nip off to Prague for a day or so while the grandparents have the kids so i’m really looking forwards to that, i’m also hoping to get a load of training done to ensure we come back for Snetterton in tip top condition, i can’t wait to get going again, hopefully see some of you at Snetterton, take it easy, Shakey #67  

I know, I know, I know... Pre season and Brands hatch round 1!!

Ok hands up I've gone and got myself in a bit of a pickle here, it's been that long since I've done a Blog that I actually don't know where to start and not only that 2 rounds in to the new season and I've almost forgotten Brands already, I'm gonna do my best he recollect what's been going on in my world over the past few months so hang tight, here we go!!!

I guess that going over now what happened in testing over in Spain seems pretty pointless, as you may or may not recall i tested way back in the end of november last year and got to use the new 17 inch wheels, at a track as tight and twisty as Cartagena that .5 of an inch difference was massive and i remember way back then thinking these wheels really suit my bike and looking forwards to getting back out in the new year, now, fast forward a few months, a good few gym sessions with the personal trainer i’ve entrusted to get me in the best possible shape for this season, fast forwards even more to a whole load of cycling as well as the personal training and end up at a trip to Italy to see my clothing supplier Alpinestars, why i hear you ask, well, after spending the whole winter on a special diet and training full gas i’d dropped a bit of weight, when i say a bit i dropped approximately 4-5 kilos!!!!, What’s that got to do with Alpinestars, well, i last went over to Italy in 2005, my second season in Moto GP so i figured it was high time i went for a remeasure and get this, i’m leaner and fitter now than i was 9 years ago and adjustments had to be made to my suit to make it smaller to fit me better as last years suit o me looked like a shell suit lol!!!!!

Onwards and upwards then and off to Almeria for the official BSB preseason tests, i really enjoy the circuit and was really looking forwards to getting going, we had John McGuiness come over with us to hang out which was cool, he’s such a funny guy and all three evenings were spent laughing our heads off at all the stories of the past, it was almost like the test was a massive team bonding exercise, not that we need to be any tighter because i have a great team anyway but it was work hard all day and relax hard all evening so we had a great time, not only that i went bloody fast, like really fast on the bike too and was consistently fast not just the odd lap here and there on brand new tyres!!! 

Straight after Almeria came the first UK test of the year up at Donington park, a semi damp first session meant i never bothered going out but once the track dried up we got some good work done and again we were fast, it was the first test up against all of our competitors and we managed to come out on top which was cool although it was consistency we were looking for not outright lap times so it was a win win situation!!!

Onwards then to the next test, a two day affair at Snetterton, again a test that was semi hampered by the weather, it was really cold so track temperature were really low and the wind on the first day was bad news, the second day though was far better and we managed to once again go real fast, i even managed to beat my own lap record held from the last year of full F.I.M Superbike spec back in 2011 with a 1.47.9, i was pretty chuffed with that i tell you!!!!

Right then, now we’re making progress so let’s move onwards again to round 1!!

Brands hatch, what can i say that i haven’t said before about the place, i love the long circuit but i’m not a fan at all of the short circuit, to me any track we can get around in 45 seconds isn’t big enough, the fact we have 2 30 lap races there, well, that say it all, back markers are always a trauma but hey, it’s still Brands hatch, and ultimately when we’re on the GP circuit it’s one of the coolest tracks on earth, well, to me anyway lol!!!

Practice in the dry had been going well, to be honest with the lap being so short it only takes a few laps before you're up to speed, that combined with the fact that the first round was a four day affair meant that by the time we got to qualifying most of us were going dizzy, well, that’s what you must’ve thought after the absolute crash fest that qualifying became, i know and understand that the organisers have to have a qualifying session and of course there was all kinds of eruptions and press releases after but i still FIRMLY stand my ground that 13 of the top 15 qualifying riders didn’t crash just because we were al trying hard, that is absolute nonsense and after the event is something that Johnathon Palmer has invited me up to the circuit to help to try to resolve, there’s something about the Indy section of the track that makes it almost impossible to stay on your bike, i crashed twice for absolutely no reason, Josh Brookes 3 times and like i said 13 of the top 15 qualifiers all crashed in the same session, that’s got to say something, right???…

Race day then, we knew with the settings that we had for the dry that we would be competitive, myself and Josh seemed to be the two most consistent guys in the dry throughout practice so with Josh starting from Pole and me down in 13th on the 5th row surely an uphill battle would ensue.

I got a decent enough start but i was very keen not to rush and make a mistake trying to make up places, i took no big risks picking my way through the field then going up into Druids i saw Josh had gone down, shortly after i was up into 2nd with Stalker about 2 seconds clear, once through all the traffic i found a real nice rhythm and started reeling Stalker in, i still had about 20 laps to go so figured driving myself mad to catch him quick may have used too much tyres yet the pace i was going i was trying to go easy on them, eventually i got right on Stalkers back wheel and pretty much instantly the red flags came out, at that point i wasn’t sure if it was two thirds race distance so i didn’t know if it was a result or not..

After the race we stopped it was announced there’d be a re start over 12 or 16 laps, i can’t remember which, i’d be starting P2 rather than on the 5th row so it was gonna make life a lot easier, however knowing Stalker and James Ellison would probably run the softer tyre i knew the pace might be stronger so i had to get my head down, i got a good start, got myself into the lead then chipped away to eventually win the 1st race of the year by just under 2 seconds!!

Race 2 came around pretty quick, 30 hard laps were in front of us and with Josh starting 10th and me up the front i knew i’d need to try to get going asap, again i got a decent enough start, eventually i took the lead then reeled of 29 laps and managed to take the double at round one, for sure Josh was closing me down but like i said we held it together to take the double so i was absolutely delighted, the extra bonus was it was my team boss Paul Bird’s birthday on the friday before so it made a nice birthday present for him lol!!!! So then after the perfect start to the season it was now onwards and upwards yet again, this time to Yamaha’s stomping ground, Oulton park… 

Happy Christmas!!!!

Well guys and girls, time for a super quick check in with you all, really and truly it was simply to say that i’d like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, i hope you had a great day, got all the presents you wanted, i know i did!!!! No peace for the wicked this end though, straight back into training tomorrow, got to do something to work off the Christmas dinner Petra cooked us today, i tell you something if Carling did Christmas dinners lol…

Anyway, as i said, hope you all had a great day and lets look forward to a great 2014, talk to you all soon, enjoy the rest of your breaks, Shakey #67 

Signed, sealed, now to deliver!!!!

I'm so so happy to be typing this Blog, I'm actually starting it sat on a plane on route to the Czech Republic as this is about the first chance I've had to sit down for five minutes as I've had a bit of a hectic few days lately but more about that in a minute!!

Things work wise have been all a bit up in the air lately, I've known what I wanted to do for a long long time and fortunately for me I'm in a very fortunate position where my boss Paul Bird simply said I want you to stay riding for me but we'll work out the details once the MotoGP side of things is boxed off, you may remember a while back I said that I might have some news straight after Valencia, well, that was what it was all about, as it turns out it's taken this long for the PBM and I'm guessing Aprilia job to sort itself out but as I said I knew all along Paul had my back so it was all cool as far as I was concerned, there were the usual calls from other teams wanting me for BSB but my first priority and loyalty was to Paul and PBM so those jobs steadily got taken by others.

We'd known for a while that as a team we needed to get out to Spain to test before Christmas, in fact it was something that the team were fairly adamant about, for 2014 BSB is switching to 17 inch wheels to follow WSB and we knew that the wheels had quite an effect of the bikes handling so it was important to get out to try them and get a feel for what they did to my bike.

It's funny you know having a couple of months or whatever it's been since the last race at Brands off how initially you feel a tiny bit rusty, Cartagena isn't the type of track that you get a chance to ease yourself into either, you get about a 4 or 5 second rest up the start finish straight but the rest of the lap is either on the side of the tyre or changing direction so it's pretty physical and relentless, it'd be a great track on a 600 or something but a super bike takes a bit of wrestling around there!!! We spent a few laps getting comfortable around the track again and getting up to speed again which to be honest happened pretty damn quick then after a few exits we fired in the new 17 inch wheels and got to work on getting the bike working good with them, in some respects they were real good but in others I was surprised how similar they were to the outgoing 16.5's, I'm not going to say too much about the differences but I think I can safely say that lap records should be getting broken again next season, especially if my time by the end of the test compared to my time there after 3 days of riding earlier in the year is anything to go by and when I tell you that we lost about 45 minutes of running on the final day due to a technical problem thus not giving me the chance to go for a proper all out lap time I think things will be real good!!

After the test I only got a day or so at home before packing our bags ready to head to Czech Republic to go to see the in laws, this was supposed to be a real relaxing trip with Petra and I even planning a sneaky day and night together in Prague as we enjoyed it there so much last year, however the minute we got to the in laws Petra's sisters boyfriend said casually oh, I've entered a running race on Saturday, it's 10km's and should be pretty good, knowing I hadn't run since early March I said can anyone enter, secretly hoping he'd say no it's a club thing but he said yes for sure so before we'd even got settled in we'd been entered....

Yesterday, we woke up, kept hearing it'll be fine blah blah blah, got in the car with him and a friend, drove to the race and about 2 km from the entrance we started dropping down a big hill, unbeknown to us this was part of the course, as we approached it seemed the closer we got to the parking and starting area the steeper this hill was getting, knowing I'd not run in such a long time I was like Martin, is this some sort of joke, he was like, actually no, I was expecting it to be quite like this, anyway, to cut a long story short, we started went up and up and up, levelled off, dropped down a slight slope then I looked up in front of me and saw the leaders running up a massive flight of steps up into a big church that stood perched on top of a hill, I thought you're shitting me, first run back and this is happening, what made it worse was the fact that I knew we had to do 2 laps, it was hard enough getting up it first time round, god knows what lap 2 was going to be like!!!!

Eventually the 2nd lap passed and heading down towards the finish line I passed a group I'd been chasing for a fair while, not that it meant anything but I was chuffed, then with about 100 odd meters to go I started hearing big thudding footsteps behind me, I thought no, don't be thinking about passing me back, this one guy came past me and as we turned the last turn with about 50 meters to go we both got faster and faster, I gave it absolutely everything and literally just pipped him to the line, I thought you cheeky b word, fancy trying to pip me that close to the finish, mind you I did practically throw up crossing the line, I can honestly say hand on heart I tried lol!!!

I waited for a bit then saw Petra coming towards e end of her race, she did the 10km course too and ended up having a sprint finish with some guy who she too pipped, she actually finished 3rd in her class so I was well proud of her because when I say that was a tough race I really mean it!!

Today we're off to Prague, Petra and i stayed there for 3 days last year and loved it so we're going again, lunchtime we have a coach, we'll get to Prague around 3 then I've booked us a real nice hotel right in the middle of the city near Wenceslas square tonight then a full day of kicking back tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to it!!!

Right I'm gonna check out now, talk to you guys soon, take it easy, Shakey #67

 "

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