Blimey, just woke up here in Magny Cours, it’s Friday morning which means practice is going to start later and I haven’t even told you about Imola yet, I know what I’m like, if I leave it even a day longer I’ll get myself all in a pickle and start forgetting what happened where so here goes for Imola!!
I like the Imola circuit, I enjoy the layout and looked forward to the race there which by all accounts was a little bit touch and go at some points, the test mid season had gone well there right up until the point when Leon’s bike took a particular fancy to mine so it was all systems go, we started the weekend with one bike set exactly the same as we had the bike in Nurburgring as we’d made a bit of a step there setting wise and the other bike was set exactly how we had it at the test earlier in the year.
The 1st session went really, really well, I immediately felt comfortable especially on the bike with the test settings in and ran P2 to Carlos right until the last 15 minutes or so, we put our second set of tyres on and went P1 by a good few tenths, I thought that was enough and indeed it was until Carlos did a final flying lap and pipped me by a 10th again so a good start to the weekend.
We had some more work to do in provisional qualifying, I wanted to try to take the strong points from both bikes and create one real good one, we were once again running right at the front when with about 15-20 minutes to go the boys gave me the BOX sign, we knew where we were and all was ok so I said right lets just give it 5 minutes before we head out, I was confident I could go quite a bit faster but I didn’t want to do it too early and get pipped like I did in the first session, we used that final blast to try a different front tyre which generally works real well but for some reason I pushed real hard and only managed to match my time from earlier in the session, in fairness I didn’t put together the best lap and did get a tiny bit held up but I guess if nothing else it told me that that type of front tyre wasn’t the way forward, I dropped to 5th I think by the end of the session but I was ok and still felt confident that with the decent front tyre I could’ve improved both time and position wise.
Saturday brought mixed conditions, pretty much everybody sat out the whole morning session, I did literally 1 flying lap on a set of intermediates just to scrub them in case of needing a set for Superpole!!
I’ll go on record saying that Imola has to be THE slipperiest surface I have ever ridden in the wet, for Superpole I went out on a bike set for the wet but it felt like a stiff dry bike, I had no feeling whatsoever, I was amazed that I finished 2nd in the first session, I felt like I might as well get off and push the bike around, I’d probably of gone quicker!!
For the second Superpole the guys softened the bike right off and on the out lap it felt a tiny bit better, by that I mean the suspension actually compressed!! I did the warm up lap then exited the chicane and thought right Superpole 3 here we come, on the run up to turn 1 I noticed waving yellow flags, I entered the chicane and out the corner of my eye I noticed a bike on the exit, I entered the left, changed direction just took a minuscule glance at the stricken rider to make sure he wasn’t in my path and the next thing I knew I was flying through the air towards him, Cal had exactly the same crash, as in the end did many others but he’d got up and managed to ride to the pits, I ran to my bike which at that point was still running, I went to grab the clutch to pick it up but the marshall bench pressed the thing up right before I grabbed the clutch and it stalled the engine, I was fuming. I managed to get a lift bag on the back of a 250 year old Italian on his scooter and to be honest it would’ve been quicker to walk, I got out on the other bike which was set up for the dry and missed the cut for Superpole 3 by nothing, and I nearly had another massive near highside in the process, I wasn’t happy!!!
I really struggled for some reason in morning warm up, the track was still slightly damp particularly in the fast down hill run to the chicane so after a couple of warnings early on I decided that there were no prizes for being fastest in warm up!!!
My start for race 1 was far from ideal and I got a bit humped being on the inside running through the 1st chicane, I pushed real hard all race but until the fuel load had gone down a bit I found myself really struggling to stop and turn the bike, I ran off track trying to pass Guintoli and lost 4 seconds to him but a good pace in the last half of the race saw me catch and pass him on the last lap or so. The result, 8th, wasn’t particularly impressive but my pace at the end was real good so all we needed to do was compare the data from the beginning to the end to make some changes to ensure the bike worked the same in the first part of race 2 as it had at the end of race 1, easy a!!!!
I got a slightly better start in race 2 and managed to get through the first chicane a bit better, the race was pretty tight at the front, ok Carlos got the lead and cleared off but the rest of us were close, about half way through Haslam’s bike blew and I was completely blinded, the smoke was so think that I literally couldn’t see a thing, I kept thinking please please don’t let anybody fall in front of me, I might just as well of shut my eyes because I would’ve seen more!!! Fortunately despite running off track we continued on but it broke the group right up, I was left with Lanzi who finished 2nd in the first race about 3 or 4 seconds up the road and I managed to catch and pass him to take 6th at the flag.
Obviously reading this now you’ll know that I’m not going to be continuing with the Althea Ducati team, it’s a real shame, the team are going to focus on Carlos who let’s face it has done an awesome job this year and may consider running another rider should one with a big personal backer come along so I’m out, I have a few irons in the fire though and all is not lost, I’m not sure what I’m going to do next year but rest assured as soon as I know you’ll read it right here. Take it ease, Shakey#67
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