Oulton park round 3!!!

For some reason or another getting started with this Blog has for one reason or another been pretty hard, especially strange when you consider the fact I had my best weekend so far with the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team, I’ve sat at the computer for god knows how long thinking right I’ll do my Blog but then thought, actually I’ll just check this site quickly, oh, I fancy a quick coffee, like I said it’s just been a bit of a nightmare getting going so whilst I’m on it I better fire through it asap before I come up with some excuse to skive off halfway through!!!!

I think its fairly safe to say that the weekend didn’t exactly get off to a very good start whatsoever, in fact it got off to a terrible one, I’d arranged to arrive at the circuit by 6-30pm Thursday evening in order to get a good parking space but never even left Kent until about 5pm and I guess you’ll not need telling what the m25’s like on 5pm before a bank holiday weekend, needless to say we missed the 6-30 deadline, unbeknown to us though eventually we arrived at Lymme services to fill the motorhome with diesel only to discover a load of coolant flooding out the back of the engine compartment…this wasn’t at all good!!!

To not bore you to death and go into too much detail the long and short of it was about a 5 or 6 hour delay and we finally arrived at Oulton park about 5am Friday morning on the back of a dirty great big low loader truck, not exactly rockstar!!!!!!

Things went form bad to worse the following day when we realized the motorhome could only run for about a minute and a half before the engine stop light came on so we ended up in a little car park all on our own and once set up and sorted a further investigation found a dirty great big hole in the radiator.. just what you need to get your triple header race weekend off to a good start!!

On a positive note though first practice went pretty well, to be fair the weekend went pretty well from there on in, there were a few things we needed to do to the bike pretty much straight away but the way our bike makes its power right now seemed really quite suited to the undulations and flowing nature of the Oulton park circuit,  we just needed to do a bit of work on the chassis setting and sort out a better gearing pattern to enable us to go forward.

It seemed real weird having two one hour sessions on the first day, you always spend a bit of time getting up to speed then gradually work through a few things before arriving at a point where you’ll maybe throw a tyre at the job towards the end of a session and have a dig to suss out where your at but we seemed to just keep working and working which was no bad thing because we continued to improve and ended up spending a few more laps on race tyres which I learnt last year is no bad thing..

With the first two sessions being on the Saturday it felt pretty weird knowing that nothing would happen until 12pm on Sunday morning due to the church nearby and then it was only a 15 minute session!!, we’d made some changes and just pretty much went out from start to finish to try the changes, I got into a pretty good rhythm and felt pretty cool heading into qualifying which was literally 40 odd minutes later.

I got through the first qualifying session with my first flying lap and didn’t bother heading back out as we’d start the second session on the same set of tyres, the 2^nd session came and went with no dramas as did the final one which we got through to eventually qualifying 2^nd for the first race on Monday, I was pretty happy with that..

For the first race of the weekend I had to start from the third row as this was taken from the fastest laps at the cancelled wet Brands hatch race and we all know how pants I was there but regardless I was feeling ok for the race, I got a decent start and settled in ok, making progress up through the field and closing in on Josh Brookes who was leading, I noticed a few times though at high rpm my bike was starting to play up a bit, like fuel starvation or something so I was pretty relieved when the race got red flagged whilst I was still P2, I wasn’t sure if we’d done enough laps for it to be declared a result so I got back to the pits as quick as I could in order to give the boys the best chance to try to rectify the problem.. unfortunately we hadn’t done enough laps for it to be declared a result so we were going to have to get back at it!!

Starting P2 I got a good start again and went 2^nd into turn 1 behind Josh, I stayed there for a bit but for some reason the problem was just getting worse and worse, it was only an 8 lap sprint race so I thought I’ve got to just try to hang in there, the problem was it was getting close to a bit dangerous because my bike just kept losing power and it started getting more and more frequent, by the time the chequered flag came out I’d dropped to a totally pissed off 11^th place, not what we came for at all!!!!

The boys got to the bottom of the problem straight after the race and the data showed I was actually really lucky to finish the race at all as the engine had been running so lean that I was lucky it never let go, you never know those few points might make all the difference at the end of the year so whilst it was only 5 points it was better than none at all!!

Morning warm up the following day I had a new engine in and the fuel starvation thing was fixed so my bike felt like a rocket, I ended the session 2^nd on used tyres and was preying for two dry races even though the forecast wasn’t great at all.

Typically about half an hour before our race it poured hard but then eased off again so just before our race we got an 8 minute wet practice. In a funny kind of way this was exactly what we needed as we knew from Brands we had a poor wet setting then at Thruxton we got it much better but maybe here we could go another step, it certainly seemed to work as I lead the whole session before Rutter followed my around for a lap to pip me to fastest, I guess now after getting a bit of confidence in the wet I couldn’t care less if it was a wet or a dry race… not a bad position to be in ;-)

With race one coming so soon after the 8 minute practice the conditions were almost identical, basically wet with a few damp patches, I decided to go for wet tyres for a couple of reasons, one because I was fast a few minutes ago on them and two because Tommy and Josh both had them so we’d all be in the same boat, I got a great start as the lights went out and immediately went into the lead, I was pretty steady for the 1^st lap but still built up over half a seconds advantage, I knew if I could keep that kind of advantage for a few laps I’d be able to hold and manage it and fortunately for me that’s exactly what happened, I tried to push but not push at the same time as just a few laps in I could see the track was drying pretty rapidly and in those conditions its really easy to destroy wet weather tyres, I knew from the grid that Rutter had gone with intermediates and I kept thinking that sly old dog he’s got this in the bag, after about 10 of the 18 laps my gap decreased for the 1^st time and I thought here comes Rutter, I figured there’s no point trying to up my pace as I’ll eat my tyres and his choice will be so much quicker anyway that I’m better off staying safe and consistent, eventually with about 3 or 4 laps to go the pass came…..Chris Walker….on wets!!!! Initially I couldn’t believe it and had to take a second look, as soon as I was sure he was on wets I thought right that’s it then, I’ll just up my pace again and go with him but as soon as I did my bike started sliding around a fair bit and with about a 3 second gap behind me I thought do you know what, 2^nd’s a whole load of points and 2 podium credits, a bin trying to stay with Walker will get me nothing, I opted for plan A and kicked back a bit until the end of the race to take my best result of the year, albeit a little disappointed not to take the win after leading for 15 laps!!!!

Somewhat unbelievably bearing in mind what the forecast had been for the day the final race was in full dry conditions, in some ways this was good because at least we knew roughly where we’d be plus we’d made a few little changes for the dry that should make the bike even better but in some ways I was kind of hoping for a full on wet race, when you bear I mind how crap I was in the wet race at Brands that’ll give you some kind of indication as to how much better we got my wet setting now!!

Anyway, it was dry as I said, I lined up 8^th on the grid for the final race right on the inside of the track, on the start of the warm up lap I had a big look to make sure there were no wet patches still on the inside on the way into turn 1 because the track tends to hold a bit of water there and it looked dry enough so all I needed was a good start right…

As the lights went out I did get a pretty good launch, I think I exited turn 1 maybe 5^th or 6^th, I could see my team mate had nicked the lead and after the first few laps I was feeling pretty relaxed and getting to grips with the changes we’d made to the bike, after a couple more laps Tommy passed me and it kind of spurred me on a bit, Rat boy was still leading and had built up a bit of a gap but once I’d got passed Graeme Gowland and Josh I had clear track to try to reel Tommy and Rat boy in and it worked perfectly, as soon as I got the clear track I needed my lap times tumbled and I got going faster than I’d been all weekend lap after lap, Tommy managed to nip past Rat boy and a lap or so I did the same, before long I found myself rather quickly closing in on Tommy and by the time I’d caught him I saw his lap times had dropped off a bit, at that point there were two things on my mind, A how difficult Tommy can be to pass and B the worry of getting caught by whoever was in 3^rd, it took me 3 or 4 laps to suss out where I could pass Tommy but eventually I got a run on him out of turn 1 then got alongside on the run down the avenue and managed to slip past him on the inside into Cascades, I deliberately never used all the track in order to give him somewhere to go because if I’d used my usual line it would have put us both in a bit of an iffy situation, Tommy let his brakes off a little but ran a bit deep into the left of Cascades by which time I’d got stopped and turned and fired back up the inside, I got my head down again and dropped about a second a lap that lap which gave me a bit of a gap, then a lap or so later I thought right I must check my pitboard to see how many laps are left this time round and as I came onto the start finish straight the chequered flag was waving, I thought bloody hell I’ve just won it!!!!!!!!  

A victory burnout, that felt good i tell ya!!


In a way the great thing about the win was the way the bike was working for me, like everyone we obviously know roughly where the bike needs to be from a chassis setting point of view and the changes we made to the bike were going in exactly the direction we’ve been thinking about going since Thruxton where the bike also worked well, my crew chief Johnny sat studying the data and noticed some things that fell in line with my comments about the bike and both of us together agreed that we needed to change a few bits and the proof in the pudding was that final race where not only did I do my fastest outright lap of the weekend my rhythm was far stronger too. We now have a bit more of a plan going forward towards the next round at Snetterton, we started this whole chassis direction thing at the official test there ages ago, in the final session of the day after struggling I felt like we’d touched the surface of something real good so I can’t wait now to get back there an go racing.

Johnny and i discussing the local newspaper ;-)


Massive thanks have to go to my team for all their hard work over the weekend, I guess to the RAC for their help in getting us there in the first place and whilst it will seem a bit soft, to my mate Wagg who came along for the weekend to help out, his temporary repair to the motorhome got us to the garage for it to be fixed on the Tuesday after the race so thanks mate!!!!

Who you looking at!!!!!!


Right I’ve got massive finger pump now and still have to type my column for The Sun newspaper yet so I’m out of here, see you all at Snetterton, take it easy, Shakey 67!!!

Thruxton round 2!!

Do you know what, I was really, really looking forward to Thruxton, I really enjoy riding there for one but more importantly and believe me I mean this bit, the weather forecast was dry, certainly for the first day anyway, Brands hatch a few days ago seems to have left me feeling like I haven’t actually ridden my bike in the dry for what seems like forever!!

First practice came and went with no dramas at all, we actually started the session on used tyres from Brands hatch because Thruxton is notoriously hard on tyres so we didn’t want to start on new ones and waste them just getting up to speed, as it was I managed to get up to speed pretty quickly anyway and topped the session on the used ones, I came in to make a few changes and had been bumped down by the WFR bikes but we exited with new tyres and despite getting held up a bit by slower riders I managed to go P1 again so a good start to the weekend.

The second session actually went pretty well too, we worked a little bit more on our chassis settings and got the bike working pretty good, in fairness a few of the boys fired in super soft tyres at the end of the session so we put in a new pair of race tyres I felt very confident of remaining at the top of the time sheets without using a super soft but I got a bit of traffic through the fast turn two and up into the complex which ruined my lap a bit, that said I only ended a 10^th off the best time but in P4 so no big drama.

Saturday morning we woke too yep, you guessed it, rain!! I couldn’t believe it, that said Thruxton is a mega place to ride in the wet or dry and lets face it after my performance at Brands it’s not like I didn’t need a bit of time on the bike in the wet, initially I went out and really struggled with the bike, we seemed to have loads of rear grip but no stability or feeling from the front tyre whatsoever, we used the session as a bit of a test though and made a few changes and got things quite a bit better, I still felt like we needed to make some big steps but nonetheless I actually ended up P4 and only a couple of 10^th’s off fastest so to be so close with not such a good feeling from the bike was pretty positive.

Qualifying started out pretty tricky, not fully wet yet far from dry, we waited for a bit before exiting and then went out with a wet front and intermediate rear, I got to P1 real quick but the track was drying pretty quickly, I managed to put a lap in to get through to Q2 despite the front tyre feeling like a bit of chewing gum so we were all set and ready for Q2.

Immediately we exited for Q2 with an intermediate front and slick rear as the track was drying quickly, I checked with my crew chief that we’d have time should I need it for a slick front and he said yes so I exited, immediately went P1, then went half a second quicker but after that lap I thought right, time for a slick front, I pulled into the pits and the boys set to work but something happened and delayed things and to cut a long story short I never had enough time for a final flier so I got dropped out of Q2, I was not happy!!!

Obviously starting from the 4^th row was far from an ideal situation however looking at things positively it was a massive improvement on last year starting from the back of the grid, with this in mind for morning warm up due to the cold track temperature we tried the harder rear race tyre as there was a strong chance the softer version would cold tear anyway and not only that if the temperature didn’t pick up a bit throughout the day racing the softer one was going to be a bit of a risk, we also tried a slightly different front fork setting although after just two or three laps it was clear that whilst it fixed part of our problem it instigated some bigger ones, we made a quick setting change during the session then I went back out and managed a pretty respectable lap time on the harder rear so at least now we knew we had the option of running either depending on the track temperature.

Sitting on the grid for race one despite being on the 4^th row I actually felt really confident of a good result, I knew that if I got some work done early on hopefully I’d be able to tuck in and get towed around for a bit in order to preserve my tyres a little, we’d decided to race the softer option and knew we could be fast on it and if a little careful could easily do the distance too, I got a decent start and made up a few places straight away, it’s fair to say that throughout the race I had my fair share of dramas, the biggest one being the front brake lever bending down meaning I couldn’t pull it enough, this was causing all sorts of dramas because I kept running in everywhere way too hot then panicking and workingthe rear tyre to hard, I had a couple of big moments and then scared the shit out of myself alongside Michael Laverty because I got a run on him but couldn’t get stopped and thought we were going to collide, as I rounded turn 1 I put my hand up and had to use my throttle hand to rectify the problem with the lever, I thought there was only one person behind me but as soon as I sat up about 4 of them passed me, b*****ks I thought, now I’ve gone and done it, straight away I got back on the gas and got going again but on the approach to Church (the fastest corner probably in the UK) I grabbed the brake shifted from 5^th to 4^th but the angle I’d put the lever to was right against the hard plastic protector on my finger so I squeezed but the levercouldn’t move so once again I steamed in way wide, I finally got myself together and eventually got back to 4^th which was far from ideal but considering the dramas I’d had it was something to build on for race two which going forward I’d now start from P6 so second row.

We opted for the same type of tyres for race two as we knew that starting from closer to the front we should be able to slot in straight away and manage the job, as we lined up to start I knew I needed a good start and thankfully I got a half sensible one, I immediately slotted in around 3^rd or 4^th and very quickly made a move or two, before I knew it I was chasing Tommy and feeling incredibly comfortable, I couldn’t tell you the lap times I didbehind him but I felt so comfortable that I decided to try to pass him and see if I could get a bit of a run on my own, now Thruxton is traditionally a really hard place to get a break from the pack but I gave it a bit of a go regardless and managed some pretty fast times early on but always riding on the side of caution in terms of not hammering my tyres,

Leading the way in race 2!!

I was riding so much smoother and trying to be as kind as possible to my rear tyre whilst lapping fast enough to keep everyone else behind, as the laps started counting down I was thinking just keep it going, just keep it going but the rear tyre was starting to roll a bit and was spinning a fair bit in places, it got down to about 3 or 4 laps to go and I missed a gear due to wheelspin on the run down towards Church which messed things up a little and lost me some drive, I felt that horrible feeling of my bike being sucked backwards and knew someone was slipstreaming me, sure enough Tommy came passed and held me off on the brakes into the final chicane, at that point I just thought right, don’t panic, just follow him and lets see what he’s got, I had a bit of a slide trying to get a run on him through Church and then Josh passed me and I was like for gods sake give me a break, there was nothing left to give other than 110% which I tried but whilst they never got away I never got them back, I had another wheelspin miss gear on the run to the finish line and nearly lost my 3^rd place which was close but fortunately we managed a podium, I feel good about the fact I gave my all but I’m pretty gutted we didn’t take the win, in fairness to Tommy and Josh they did the sensible thing and let me do all the work, I used up a bit too much tyre and when they saw that they pounced, in hindsight maybe I should’ve done that but on the flip side I really enjoyed leading and riding too and that’s what it’s all about.

Using all the track and some!!

We know now what we need from our bike to go forward and where we’re lacking a little so the boys have a plan already, a few days scrawling through data just to confirm my comments should see us start at Oulton park with a good plan, one that will hopefully take me two steps higher up the podium!!!

Massive thanks to all the fans for coming to say hi and showing their support, to everyone in my team for their effort and to you my followers for sitting reading this and last but not least a BIG GET WELL SOON to our hospitality man Baz who badly broke his ankle over the weekend slipping down the stairs, see yuo soon buddy!!!! Take it easy, Shakey 67

Brands hatch round 1 2012!!

Well, what a start to the first round of the MCE British Superbike Championship season last weekend was, sat here typing this now I’m still struggling to get over all the shenanigans that went on, I’ve been pretty excited about getting to Brands since our test the other week up at Knockhill, I felt far more comfortable on the bike and couldn’t wait to get back on track to see how the new feeling helped as we had tested there just recently too it would almost be like a true back to back test. Seeing the BSB paddock all set up again for the first time every season is something pretty cool, it seems to just grow a little every year with more and more teams splashing out on all the hospitality units etc, I have to admit it’s a cool place to be a part of, trouble is though seeing it all gets you even more revved up to get out riding and being at the track a day or so before things get underway every second feels like an hour!!!! ;-)

We had a steady start to the weekend, we worked only on the hard rear race tyre in the first session as the track temperature was so cold in the morning, it’s always nice doing that because no matter where you end up position and lap time wise you know you have something in the bag when you eventually fire in the slightly softer version so to end up 3^rd in the first session but on the hard tyre boded well.. We did a little bit more work in the 2^nd session but this time on the softer tyre and ended up fastest in the final test on Good Friday which felt good because like I said before it isn’t until we all get out on circuit together after pre-season testing that you know where everyone stacks up without all the bull****, as it turned out my lap time in the practice session was the fastest overall for the whole weekend but anyone that rocked up at Brands for qualifying or the races will know exactly why, things weather wise definitely took a turn for the worse!!

When the sun was shinning!!!!

Throughout free practice etc we just worked through some changes which meant we were able to confirm a few things from a chassis setting point of view but we still knew we had some work to before the races, this weekend was going to be all about preserving tyres whilst riding fast and it seemed we had things kind of covered with both tyre options as I was able to lap very consistently over more than race distance on both which was good news!!!
By the time we got around to qualifying we knew we were getting closer, we had done some long runs, in fact pretty much full race duration runs on the race tyresand my times were very competitive even right at the end, I actually went out and took the tyres way over race distance at the end of one of the sessions for our information and because there is nothing quite like sliding a 200bhp Superbike for a bit of badness on a nice sunny afternoon!

Things were all shaping up quite nicely but just before qualifying the weather turned and qualifying was held in real difficult conditions, not wet but not dry either, the type of conditions you dread as a rider, but you know it was the same for everyone so we had to just get on with it, nothing like trying to qualify for the first race of the year having never ridden your bike in anything other than bone dry conditions ;-) I ended up finally qualifying third so on the front row which is always important at Brands hatch, I tried to push harder because a debut pole position for the Rapid Solicitors team would’ve been great but it wasn’t to be,not for a lack of trying though as the following lap I pushed too hard into turn 1 and things got a bit too sidewaysso I went straight on into the gravel. Not sure if it was the motocross chat from the boys in the garage but I managed to keep her upright through the gravel and out the other side. I did have another go but that was it game over but third on the grid was a good place to start, especially on the Indy circuit.

Raceday came and typical UK weather hit us at Brands Hatch. We hadn’t ridden in full wet conditions so it was something of a first date for us again, I tried to get a bit of a feeling for the bike without driving myself too crazy as the last thing you need is to go down the road in morning warm up so I rode pretty within myself and whilst the bike felt far from terrible it was clear we needed to make a few more changes to it if the race was to be fully wet, that said though we ended the session P2 so it was far from disaster…

Kel Brook the boxer came along to offer some support, top guy!!!

As the lights went out to start the first race of the year I got a great start and lead the first lap but in a stupid way I wanted someone to pass me so I could see someone else as a gauge, the conditions were horrible and I definitely didn’t want to be the one finding the limit,

Leading the way...not for long!!!

I had a few moments out there but the points were important and with Thruxton just a few days away I didn’t want to do a stupid move that could have jeopardized the next round as I know that the conditions can catch you out when it is like that, we saw that from Tommy Hill and Michael Laverty. I have to admit I absolutely hated the first race, not because I had crap result but because the conditions were so slippery you might as well have ridden with one arm tied behind your back just to make it a little more difficult, I couldn’t ride nowhere near how I know I’m capable and finishing 7^th is just basically pants!!!

I had a similar kind of smile but one of relief when race 2 got cancelled!!

I was gutted that we didn’t get a second race, but I went out upon request of the organizers and did some laps but the conditions just weren’t right at all, a few mechanical problems had dropped fluid on the already wet track and turned the place into an ice rink, if we’d raced it would have been a case of riding so reservedly that we’d probably all end up falling down because our tyres would’ve cooled down too much!!!!, One consolation is that we only have to wait a few days until Thruxton now when we can get back out on track and amongst it to show we mean business.

Thruxton up next is one of the fastest circuits on the calendar and we will definitely be doing all we can to top the podium there, no traction control on some parts of the track there is going to make for some proper sideways action that’s for sure!!

I’d just like to say a massive thank you to all my Rapid Solicitors team for all their hard work over the weekend and to all the great fans of BSB who probably froze more than us riders stood out there cheering us on all day, sorry for the pants result and sorry for the cancellation, hopefully we can make it up to you at another race real soon, until then it’s onwards and upwards, well geographically south westwards for me to Thruxton, hope to see you there, take it easy, Shakey #67

Knockhill test

If I'm being honest I'd have to say that after the two UK tests we had at Brands and Snetterton I wasn't exactly 100% race ready going into the first round of the championship at Brands, fortunately though my team boss booked Rat Boy and I an exclusive test up at Knockhill in Scotland, now while I'd be the first to say that Knockhill wasn't exactly the ideal test track for us due to the problems we were still trying to get to the bottom of it would indeed have a few tricky little sections on it which would definitely give us something to work at.
The weather couldn't really have been much better to be honest, I reckon we must of had around 18-20 degrees and sunshine all day so it was perfect, as soon as we got out on track it became apparent that whilst the circuit doesn't flow quite as much as some circuits nothing less than 100% there will get you anywhere near where you need to be lap time wise and with the bikes now having no traction control or wheelie control etc the nature of the circuit was definitely going to give us a bit of a work out!!!!
Fortunately the problems we'd been battling against in previous tests and started to get the upper hand with we're there in the background which meant we could carry on where we'd left off in Snetterton.
I got down to a pretty fast time within about 6 or 7 laps and the funniest thing about that was that on my first couple of laps the bike felt perfect, dead composed, controlled and nice and easy to ride but a second or so a lap faster and boom, there we have a whole different beast to deal with, all cool though and a great challenge!!!
As the day went on we started doing more and more work and trying different things that we hadn't yet had the chance to test and it threw up some real interesting feelings, one thing we were finding was that after about 35 laps or so my lap time constantly compared to my fastest was so consistent it was almost unreal, I'm not kidding when I tell you that on a number of occasions I actually thought my lap timer had broken because the lap time was so similar every lap!!
About 1 ish we put in our first pair of new tyres and I felt very confident of knocking another chunk of time off my previous best which was already pretty fast but after about a 6 lap run it was obvious we had a duff rear tyre, I knocked 2 10ths off my best lap but was sideways everywhere in doing so, I pulled in and we checked the tyre and it looked like it hadn't even been out on track, it was literally brand new in appearance!! A new rear and another couple of 10ths but this time consistently saw a big smile come on my face!!!
The great thing about this test was every time we made a change to the bike if it was good we went faster or not so good I could lap nearly as fast but it was far harder work, the team worked so well in fact that at the end of the day we actually got through our test plan and simply ran out of time to test anything else, we got exactly what we needed from the day though in more ways than one, we got a load of work done, ticked a load of boxes in terms of things we wanted to try, got to the bottom of some of the problems we'd been suffering all along, made a bit more headway with the electronics, got me feeling far happier on the bike AND got 82 race pace laps in from a fitness point of view!!!
I'm sat on my flight now on the way back to Gatwick feeling far more positive about the whole job, that's not to say I was feeling negative before perhaps just a bit more apprehensive about things, I feel better prepared now and really look forward to getting started, sure Brands and all the other races this year are gonna be incredibly tough and we'll find out just how tough in just over a week but at the end of the day if BSB was easy then everyone would be doing it, I'm certainly looking forward to those lights going out at Brands, that's when the talking stops and we find out exactly where we're at, fingers crossed it'll be in front of 31 other riders and well on route to another BSB Title, take it easy, Shakey #67

Snetterton test..

After a slightly disappointing time at Brands hatch the day before I was fully up for getting out and turning things around at Snetterton, Brands indy is a real scratchers circuit where getting to a lap time is one thing but finding the last few 10^th’s is completely another and those last few 10^th’s only come when you’re 100% happy and can push things to the limit, something we weren’t able to do yesterday..

My crew chief Johnny and our Showa suspension guy Sergio sat down in the morning once some of my media commitments were out of the way to formulate a test plan for the day hopeful of the fact that the electronics were going to be a little bit closer due to the work done at Brands which would allow us to start experimenting a bit with the bike from a geometry and suspension point of view, we all know form the very limited amount of work we’ve been able to do in these areas that there’s a fair bit of work we can get done in order to make the bike work how I want it to rather than how it decides it wants too at the moment, we know that we have some strong areas with the bike but our weak areas massively affect how well we can utilize the stronger areas.

Our first few exits were done on the tyres we’d used the day before and from an electronics point of view we hit the rewind button a little bit because at the end of the Brands test we seemed to somewhat overstep the mark in terms of how the bike runs into the corners, we went from a bike that was too tight and backing in sideways everywhere to one that wouldn’t shut down quick enough and nearly drove me off the circuit…not ideal!!! ;-)

It was pretty much immediately obvious that we had work to do electronics wise and from a chassis point of view my initial thoughts were confirmed very quickly too meaning we knew exactly what we needed to work on to improve the bike, the fact it never threw up any unwanted surprises from a chassis/suspension point of view was good too!!!

On one of my first few exits I caught up to one of the new Ducati’s and after getting a real good run on him (I think it was Polita) I drafted him and passed him up the start finish straight got to my breaking marker hit the brakes hard and immediately back shifted to third gear, this threw the bike sideways pretty much to the lock stop and I ran straight on at a rather rapid rate of knots into turn one, fortunately I got it straight and ran off onto the grass before rejoining the track further around, more engine braking assistance in 3^rd gear then please Mr Motec ;-)

We spent the day working mainly electronic and geometry changes and kind of missed the boat a bit in terms of the best session to go fast but at the end of the day if I could buy one of the lap timers that some of the teams must’ve been using then I’d of been there anyway, the final two sessions saw the track temperature plummet and no one was going anywhere near as fast as they reportedly had been but it was in the final session when everything kind of came together for me, a run of about 10 laps saw me record a very consistent and relative to what everybody else was doing very fast lap times so whilst from an outright chest out bragging exercise we never posted the fastest outright lap when we started to get things going good in less than perfect conditions we were as fast if not faster than just about everyone on track from what my guys saw of all the other top guys.

A debrief after we finished riding with my crew chief and members of the team has lead us to the conclusion that we can be very happy with the work we got through at Snetterton, we’re hoping now to get one more test in on the bike before Brands although that is yet to be confirmed because we literally touched the surface of the geometry and suspension changes we made yet it made me so much happier on the bike, I literally can’t wait for my next test if not the first race at Brands, I think we’re in pretty good shape, it’s not going to be easy but then if it was everybody would win, I’m certainly up for the challenge that’s for sure!!! Before I sign out I just want to say a big thanks to the team for all their hard work since Spain and to Shoei and Alpinestars for pulling it out of the bag too, good job and many thanks to you all!!! Right enough typing for one day, take it easy, Shakey 67

Brands hatch test..

After spending what should’ve been five full days riding the Rapid Solicitors PBM Kawasaki in Spain I was more than a little bit keen to jump back aboard it in the UK and with our first UK test being at Brands hatch it couldn’t have been a better place to start because lets face it I’ve done a lap or two around there in my time!!!!

My first exit on the bike couldn’t possibly have started any better, within 4 laps I was pretty much getting on the pace, I even surprised myself a bit!! That said though due to the new technical regulations which mean a “Superbike” is no longer so “Super” what a decent lap time is or how consistent we can expect to be over race duration remains to be seen…

One thing the team had managed to do since returning to the UK was unleash a little bit more grunt from our engines and improve the way the engine responds to the amount of throttle I twist so I was real happy with that as in Spain this was a pretty big issue, winding on 100% throttle in the middle of a corner with no traction control just to get things going a bit quicker could well spell a one way ticket to the moon!!!!

We spent pretty much all the sessions at Brands working on the new Motec ECU, any ideas of this championship having a control ECU that you can just bolt in and go are miles off, so far pretty much quite literally all we’ve done at pretty much every track we’ve been to is spend the whole time working on the electronics because until you get them somewhere near the way the bike works from a chassis point of view is irrelevant, as soon as you make another change and improve the electronics you automatically knock a chunk off your lap time but then you run in to new chassis problems that you try to fix, once they’re fixed you go faster then run into electronic issues again and it just seems to carry on and on like that at the moment!!!!

I have to admit that after 80 odd laps at Brands hatch I left there not so happy because we seemed to hit a bit of a wall lap time wise, the most frustrating thing was that by the end of the day my lap time on a 32 lap old rear tyre was only a 10^th of a second off of my fastest which in turn was only a 10^th faster than my lap time that I did on my 4^th flying lap so progress in terms of lap time wasn’t made at all but we learnt a lot about the electronics in the process so we could take that information forward with us to Snetterton and hopefully build in a big way.

Putting a positive spin on things as I always like to do we know that we still have a fair bit more work to do but even so we’re there or thereabouts in terms of outright pace but from a tyre management point of view things are almost too good, usually at a small track like Brands a new set of tyres would be worth maybe half a second a lap or so, maybe a tiny bit more but the fact it gave us nothing tells us that something’s obviously still amiss, so with that in mind in two weeks time we’re looking to be in pretty good shape as we have Snetterton and maybe another test before we return to Brands hatch for round 1 so plenty of time to get things dialled in properly… Right enough from Brands, I have to type up Snetterton now, take it easy, Shakey #67

Almeria test

So with our second road trip completed we arrived at the hotel just outside of the circuit at Almeria, yet again a bit of a late night but it didn't really matter as I was real excited about getting out riding the following day.
After getting to the circuit about 9-30 in the morning it was obvious from a track temperature point of view it would be a little while before we would be on track, saying we I mean Keith and I as Rat Boy had decided to skip this day as he was having some issues riding the previous days and had been going more and more downhill with them.
The team took the extra bit of time to prepare some stuff to test including a different swing arm etc and we finally got on track around 11, on one of my first flying laps I went straight on at the end of the back straight and it was obvious that despite the fact we'd already done a heap of work engine braking wise we still had a bigger heap more to do!!! Almeria's funny because towards the end of the long straight there's a little slip road type thing that's always been a great braking marker reference but no matter how much I tried there was no way I could get the bike slowed enough to make the apex of the penultimate turn which I seemed to run into way too hot every lap, that said we made a bit of progress in that area and indeed in other areas especially parts where I had to roll in and out of the throttle to open or close my line a little, as soon as I first experienced the problems Almeria seemed to be the perfect track to test at because it really high lighted the problem due to the amount of time you have to spend right on the side of the tyres in the middle section of the lap.
We actually were a little bit restricted in some ways with what we could actually do with the bike in order to work on the chassis setting but I know that as soon as the team get the bikes back to the UK we know exactly what we need in order to push things forward so that's very comforting, it was always going to be the case I guess, new bike, new rules I guess it was always going to be a bit of suck it and see where we're at then get back to the UK to really get some work done on the actual tracks we're going to be racing on.
Typically Almeria is a circuit that's very hard on tyres both front and rear and one of the things I finally tried again was a different front tyre, I wouldn't use it all last year on the Honda and have to admit to being a little reluctant full stop on the Kawasaki but I'm really pleased I tried it in the end because it definitely helped us to make some clear steps regarding where we need to go with the setting of the bike, sure riding in Spain with good track temperatures one thing and rolling round a freezing Snetterton's something else so we'll have to reevaluate back in the UK but initial thoughts and feelings were very good indeed, another real good thing was how consistent I could be on a longer run, I felt very comfortable riding at and maintaining a pretty fast pace which bodes well under the new rules.
I got to try a new rear linkage towards the end of the day which had both positive and negative effects in different areas so until we've made another step we'll not be retesting that, right towards the end of the day when we'd made a bit of progress I put in a new rear tyre with a used front to have a bit of a stab at a faster lap which I managed but the rear was spinning a fair bit even on the first lap which is unusual, my first lap was my fastest of the day but entering turns 1 and 3 on the 2nd lap the bike chattered sideways into both turns so rather than push again I aborted it, we could've put two new tyres in and then really pushed but I was happy enough with the lap time so we put some used tyres in and done a longer run on them staying at a real good pace throughout the run so all in all it was a really positive test for us and exactly what we needed before returning to the UK where we know we'll have more stuff to try and hope to get things that little bit more dialled in, the great thing is when the flag drops at Brands hatch in about three weeks time we'll find out exactly where we are, are the lap times in testing mean naff all at that point it's time to get down to business and that's exactly what I plan to do!!!! I just want to say a big thanks to all of the team for all the hard work they put in throughout the test, it's great to be back working with them again, lets hope they can steer me to another BSB title!!!!!! Take it easy, Shakey #67