Feels kind of weird sitting here typing this sentence because I’m just about to say that I’m relatively happy with my weekend despite the fact I finished 12th and 9th or whatever it was!!! I guess though all things considered whilst I had every intention to give it a go on Friday morning I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to ride, in fact if the truth be known if you had of asked me maybe Tuesday or Wednesday before the event I was pretty doubtful to be honest…
Prior to Brno we’d spent a few days over in the UK getting a few bits and pieces sorted out which for a change went fairly smoothly, generally we get like 5 minutes there and have 5 months worth of stuff to sort out so we never get everything done, this time though things were a bit less rushed which was nice!!!
Despite the fact it had been pretty warm whilst we were in the UK getting off the plane in Brno initially surprised me as it was only pleasantly warm at that point, it was soon to change to roasting however but it was lovely for 5 minutes!!!
Reggie had driven the motorhome up from the Ducati factory for me, this was his first race weekend this year so it was good to have him around again, plenty of people in the paddock had been asking where he was and my reply was always, “he’s gone A.W.O.L!!” anyone who knows him would understand my answer!!!!
I went to the medical centre as soon as we got to the circuit Wednesday evening but that was shut so I had to get up first thing Thursday morning to see the doctors in the clinica to see what we could do treatment wise to sort my hand out, fortunately Alpinestars brought along some larger left hand gloves for me which were stretched and adjusted to fit my still pretty swollen hand in, to be honest after my initial treatments things were feeling pretty awkward, the stitching on the top of the glove was pulling right across the top of the cut and every time I clinched my hand as if to hold onto the bars I felt inside the glove like my stitches were trying to pull themselves open, I thought there and then, hmm, this is gonna be a tough weekend!!!!
Unbelievably the first session went incredibly well, I felt really awkward and one step behind the bike but I still finished the first session in 6th I think after running as high as 4th at one point, the only problem was I could only really do 4 or 5 lap stints at that point as the swelling was making life a little bit tricky..
For the 1st qualifying session I dropped a few places but to be honest I wasn’t bothered as running in the top 10 was more than good enough, my biggest problem was feeling still 1 step behind the bike, it was like the bike was riding me round the track rather than me riding it, we made a few adjustments to beat the feeling but to be honest nothing seemed to make any difference, in the end despite spending all the way from that session to race one changing bits and pieces I resigned myself to the fact that it was just me so I got on with it as best I could.
Saturday brought even hotter weather and with it even more problems feeling wise, I dropped further down the order and was seriously wondering whether or not I was doing the right thing riding like this in these positions, I wasn’t happy but then I guess racers never are but we cracked on anyway positively hoping that the next session would be the turnaround!!
Sessions seemed to be coming and going far faster than I could cope with and I really wasn’t making much progress so as you can probably imagine I wasn’t exactly looking forward to Superpole but ironically things initially turned themselves around a bit…
In Superpole 1 I got out behind Haga and despite the fact he crashed in front of me I managed my best race tyre time of the weekend around half a second or so quicker than my previous best of the weekend, it was good enough to get me through but we didn’t know it at the time so I used one of my qualifiers although I never got to follow anyone on that lap and only matched my time on the race tyre.
For Superpole 2 we fitted an new front and rear tyre and I went out to put 1 fast lap in before using my second qualifier to try to get through to Superpole 3, unfortunately though about 5 corners in it was obvious there was something not right front tyre wise, I lost the front into the 1st of the double rights then again a few turns later, I rushed back to the pits to change tyres for my qualifier and a new front but there simply wasn’t time to change the front and with the qualifier rear in the bike just pushed the front even more. On a positive note though I think I finally sussed this whole qualifying thing, obviously I’m going to reserve judgement until Silverstone but I’m fairly confident I’ve found something.
Sunday morning’s warm up went very well indeed which helped me a bit, on used tyres from the day before I set my fastest lap of the weekend and felt pretty comfortable doing it, I actually managed about 6 or 7 laps on the bounce in that session which was about the most I’d done all weekend, the two 20 odd lap races were gonna be tough but the most important thing was not to rest and think we’d cracked it now as by the time the races came around the ambient and the track temperature would be way up, something that had caught me out in the past.
As we lined up on the grid for the start of race 1 I just felt the urge to get right amongst it, I was ready, or as ready as I could be anyway, I got a good or should I say a sensible start but I’m not joking when I tell you the exit of turn 1 pretty much told me all I needed to know about this race, it was going to be a bloody nightmare, I had no grip whatsoever and every time I exited a turn I’d lose a few bike lengths, I honestly considered pulling in to save my hand for race two but to cut a long story short I persevered and ended up 12th, after the race the team could see my frustration and as soon as they downloaded the data from the bike they could see the problem, we just had to cross our fingers for race 2 and hope the problem would be gone.
I got a fairly sensible start again in race 2 and got much more amongst it, I nearly took myself out however trying to pass Guintoli and that cost me a bit of time and a couple of places but I chipped away and chipped away to finally come home 9th, the top 20 position I’d dreamed of at the start of the week leading up to the race.
It’s important to remain positive right now and also to thank a few people for their hard work all weekend, all of the guys in the Clinica have been mega as always so big thanks for all your help and also to my side of the Althea Ducati garage, they never give up on me and despite the fact it was a difficult weekend they were behind me all the way so thanks you guys, Jarno form Alpinestars for sorting my gloves, Petra for all her hard work and Reg for taking care of everything else, you’ve all been mega, thanks to you all. Roll on Silverstone!!!!!!
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