Silverstone...

I always try to put a positive spin on everything I’m ever involved in, it’s the way forward as far as I’m concerned, there’s far too much negativity about anyway isn’t there!! As for last weekend you could look at it and think bloody hell, how can I put a positive spin on that but it’s easy in a way, if you could’ve seen, well maybe not seen but felt how down I was after qualifying but then seen me after morning warm up you’d see exactly what I was talking about!!

So then, after that first paragraph lets get cracking with this Blog, positively!! I have really been looking forward to this Showdown….. honest!!, only for one reason though, I love all three of the showdown tracks, last year in WSB was my first chance to ride the new Silverstone layout and I absolutely loved the place, I think I ended up something like a second or two off of the podium so I went ok there too, this year on the HM Plant Fireblade should be mega… shouldn’t it??

I set off out on track for the beginning of the first practice session with my bike set identical to the last round at Donington and to be honest even just the first couple of laps were enough to see that there was no way whatsoever we’d be running those settings, it was like riding with solid bars instead of suspension, I stuck at it for about 4 laps just to see if when I got going it would start to work but when my best lap was about 4 or 5 seconds a lap off of my time from the year before I thought no, this isn’t working, not only that if I’d stayed out much longer I would have had no fillings left due to the amount of vibration and chatter I was getting through the bike…this didn’t bode well….

We tried a few bits and pieces but all in vein to try to reduce the amount of chatter we were suffering with and actually went from full on too hard to too soft in the session but unfortunately nothing we tried and I mean nothing actually touched the chatter issue, sure we improved in other areas but I was properly struggling, not what I’d hoped for by a long way.

To be honest with you and too save my fingers and in the interest of not dragging things out I’ll skip now right the way through to qualifying because nothing unfortunately changed pretty much the whole way through the practice sessions, once again Chris and the guys made some improvements to the bike which helped in some areas but like I said to them at the time, chatter from the rear is the one problem that you just can’t ride around, fix that and we’ll go fast!!

Qualifying turned into a total disaster, I mean 13^th place, what’s that all about, to say we were struggling was a massive understatement, the only possible positive spin I could put on it was that I was surprised that with us having to qualify on race tyres whilst the others used the soft option I was surprised to be as high as we were and that’s not really that positive is it!!!

Saturday evening the whole team sat down together and spent time going over data and talking trying to find a way to figure out what on earth had been going on, in fact by the time I got back to the motor home it must have been about 9-30 but with the comments, the data and time I had everything crossed that the guys would come up with something.

Well, to say that the guys made some changes is a bit of an understatement, we had modified triple clamps, new spec rear shock, new spec front forks and a different engine braking map to go at for morning warm up, Go big or go home.. isn’t that what they say!!! I ventured out for morning warm up on used tyres as if the problem was fixed there would be much less or no chatter on a used tyre rather than going out on a new one which may of hid the problem, I did my out lap and immediately felt an improvement so I did 3 flying laps all feeling better then decided to try a new race tyre for hopefully a couple of laps, as it turned out I only got 1 flying lap but despite loads of traffic and getting a little held up in a couple of spots I lapped a second faster than I had all weekend and had no chatter, I was SO SO SO Happy!!! When I got back in I gave my crew chief a hug I was that relieved, just that one lap made the whole weekend start to feel worthwhile!!!!

Well obviously going into race 1 I was far more optimistic of a better result than I had been all weekend but the only thing that worried me was the fact that I’d only done one sensibly fast lap all weekend and now I had to do 14 of them on the bounce so we had no idea whatsoever how the bike was going to behave but with that in mind there could only be one battle plan, try to get a good start and hang on in there as best I could!!

All a bit anxious on the grid for race 1!!

As the lights went out I got a pretty good start, I made a few places on the run down towards turn 1 but due to my grid position I was right on the outside, as everyone braked and peeled in I kind of hung outside a bit let my brakes off and rolled around the outside of the turn which worked absolutely perfectly, I got a good run off of turn 1 and was up to about 6^th or 7^th already, I slotted in behind Jessop, Rutter and Brookes, passing Jessop into the chicane and then Brookes and Rutter into the turn at the end of the new F1 pit straight, eventually everything settled down a bit and a couple of laps in I knew we needed to make some more changes for the second race, the rear of my bike was too soft and in the slower tighter sections of the track I couldn’t accelerate with the likes of Tommy, M Lav and Hopper etc, It was pretty weird because those guys had like half a second or a second gap on me and it was just enough to keep me out of their slipstream down the straight, I couldn’t catch them but they couldn’t drop me, it was so frustrating for me, that said though if the team hadn’t made the changes they’d made overnight then I would’ve probably been battling for a top 15 so I guess I shouldn’t grumble!!!

I eventually crossed the line in 5^th, just behind the front four and immediately sat down with Chris and the boys to make a plan of attack for race two, I knew I needed the rear of the bike to be stiffer but rear grip needed to improve too.

After checking the data and listening to my comments Chris and the boys came up with a plan for race two, the bike was once again changed to try to give me a better package so we could fight for at the very least a podium, lets face it nothing else would suffice after the Donington races and race 1…

I got another fairly good start and thought I was going to be able to drop over the top of Kirkham who had a front row start but he lifted a tiny bit on the entry to turn one which sat me up a little bit, my bike definitely felt better in the slower sections of the track than it did in race 1, it felt far more supported at the rear but almost a little bit too much as the dreaded chatter had crept back in a little at a couple of corners on the track, that said I was making good progress and up to 2^nd behind Hopper and feeling almost too comfortable with it, I got a good run onto the Hangar straight and hung in Hopper’s slipstream as best I could then dived to the inside to take the lead at the end of the straight,

Leading the way in race 2!!

after a couple of laps leading I got a +.2 on my board, an indication that I had a tiny gap so I concentrated really hard on being perfect, hitting all my apex’s and nailing my exits hoping this would gradually increase my lead a little more but unfortunately it wasn’t to be, I got onto the Hangar straight myself and its weird how when someone’s slipstreaming you as your sat on your bike you feel the bike almost being sucked back towards the bike behind you, I knew there and then someone was coming and sure enough Hopper came past, I followed him for a lap or two but made a mistake on the brakes that let Tommy through, M Lav then came through and before I knew it I was back in 5^th again, because we were getting towards the end of the race and Brookes had took off at the front with Tommy in pursuit I figured maybe a podium was possible, I’d sussed a few potential passes but then on the last lap the red flag came out so I ended up 5^th again and pretty disappointed with it.

After the race the team were really happy with what we’d managed, I was happy obviously compared to practice and qualifying but our Showdown has been a disaster so far and now we’re well and truly on the back foot, I want to be Champion this year and after leading all year I’m feeling pretty gutted about the way these last two rounds have gone for us but all we can do as a team is regroup and come back stronger as a team with a stronger package that gives me the best possible chance of trying to win the last three races, that’s literally all I can do now, the rest I guess is down to destiny!!!

Thank you all so much for your support at the tracks, on Twitter and on my website, believe me I’m doing everything possible with what I’ve got underneath me to win races and I’ll be giving as ever my absolute all at Brands Hatch, hope to see you there, take it easy Shakey #67