Assen, the comeback!!

I have to admit that the prospect of heading into the start of Showdown having been operated on just three weeks previously was one that had me both keen to get out but real nervous about how strong I’d feel once I finally got back on the bike, Assen is far from an “easy” circuit in terms of the physical effort required in order to make the fast changes of direction but whatever happened I knew I had no choice other than to get out there and get amongst it.

A few days before Assen the team got me out on my team mates Superstock 1000 bike and despite the first session getting a bit sore towards the end the 2^nd session actually felt a fair bit better so that gave me some hope, however riding around Snetterton on a stocker is one thing, fighting for a 3^rd BSB title on a Superbike is completely another!!!

My team mate Stuart and I walked the track on Thursday afternoon and as soon as we started I was thinking oh no, this parts gonna be hard, that parts gonna require some muscling through but I remained positive and thought lets just take every session as it comes and see how we get on.

I got out on track first thing Friday morning and felt remarkably at ease with the whole ordeal, the plan was to basically just build up and up as the weekend wore on and with that in mind I rode with no painkillers, no strapping, nothing just to get a clear idea of where we were, I was as you can probably imagine pretty damn chuffed to end the session P1 half a second in front of anyone else, I though blimey that’ll do lol!!!

The second session was fairly similar, we started on old tyres then put a new rear in at the end of the session, the changes we’d made to the bike however had gone the wrong way and that accompanied with a bit of traffic on the new rear saw me finish the session P3, mind you, if you’d offered me P1 and P3 a week ago i would have took that more than happily!!!


Sure i can see a £1 coin down there!!!

Saturday morning we once again started with a used rear tyre and it was obvious immediately that the changes the team had made to the bike were much better, I spent a few laps riding with Alex Lowes and felt really comfortable, however without trying to make excuses my shoulder at one particular point of the track was getting pretty sore, certainly more so than the first days riding that’s for sure, regardless we cracked on and had a bit of a dig on a new rear tyre towards the end of the session, initially we went P1 again but dropped to P2 behind Smrz, we knew we had a little bit of work to do though as the new tyre had given us a little bit of chatter, something that I hadn’t had with the previous used one so for sure we could improve.

With the next session of the weekend being the 1^st of the Superpole qualifying ones it was important to try to improve but at the same time we didn’t want to go too far away from what we had, we ended up making changes throughout both session 1 and

Session 2 and to be fair we were P1 in both so the changes we were making seemed to be working, Superpole 3 however was a whole different ball game, first I made a mistake on my first flying lap then basically over rode my 2^nd lap being annoyed with myself about my 1^st flyer, then to make matters worse 2 crap laps had left me in 7^th and to top that it started to spit with rain, I thought bloody hell can’t things just go my way for once, I toured a lap and the rain passed so I approached the final chicane and thought “right, this is it, lets have it” sure enough, I crossed the line to see the chequered flag being waved….bugger, 7^th it is then!!!

Morning warm up came and went without drama, P1 or 2 I think, I was pretty happy as I matched my qualifying time on the used tyres from the day before so now all we had was the prospect of 2 18 lap races around a pretty bloody physical circuit to look forward to!!!


Massive thanks to these guys for all their help!!!

For the first time all weekend I decided to go to the medical centre to get some strapping put on my shoulder and to get a couple of painkillers to help deal with the fact I was about to face 18 laps on the bounce so I got that all sorted and headed out to form up on the grid.

As the lights went out for the start I got a pretty good launch, I was maybe 3^rd or 4^th through the first couple of turns, Kuba Smrz was one of the guys in front of me and I knew that it may be difficult for him after a couple of laps so I put a pass on him and Josh to go second behind Michael Laverty, I followed Michael for a couple of laps but felt way too comfortable so I went for the lead to see if I could make a break, initially Michael stayed with me and a few laps later came back past but once in the lead he dropped our pace by about ¾’s of a second per lap and my pit board told me that Josh and Alex were coming through so I put another pass on Michael on got my head down and immediately the gap started to go up, eventually it went up to just over 5 seconds but with that much in hand I decided a nice stand up wheelie to celebrate a successful comeback was in order so I ended up wining by 4.7 seconds, as you can probably imagine I was absolutely over the moon!!!!!


Celebrating my race 1 win!!!

Understandably we never made any changes to the bike for race two, at the end of the day for the last 5 or 6 laps or so in race 1 we were a second a lap quicker than anyone, for sure there would be some people gambling tyre wise but I figured if I kept my nose clean in the early stages I’d be able to settle into a good rhythm and just see where it took us, I got a great start and holeshoted into turn 1, I kept things clean and got my head down initially but my first flying lap which felt pretty good was a second off my best from race 1, I pushed harder again and got into the 38’s the following lap then just made a massive effort to maintain that all race, my outright pace wasn’t as fast for some reason but my performance over race distance was certainly stronger, unfortunately though so was Josh’s, with about 3 laps to go he slipped past me and by that point I was feeling it a bit with my shoulder but I could see straight away that he was having a hard time, I honestly thought, that’s cool, I’ve got this, I followed him for a lap or so then I got a run on him out of the last chicane and passed him into turn 1, I knew I need a tidy, clean and fast lap and hoped that in the first couple of sectors I could do enough to hold him off, I managed that and just tried as hard as possible on the run back to the final chicane, I knew full well to expect a lunge and also knew that if I protected the inside too much he’d get a run to the line, sure enough the lunge came and sure enough I got straightened up good but the problem was there was a back marker right in the middle of the chicane, Josh sat him up and that kind of put him directly in my path, I yanked my bike upright to avoid him, got a bit of a wheelie and lost on the run to the line so I was absolutely gutted…

Having now had a couple of days I’ve kind of calmed down a little regarding the 2^nd place, I mean at the end of the day if you’d offered me a 1^st and a 2^nd a week ago I would have laughed at you, that or chewed your arms off!!! I guess the first Showdown round has proved that in our sport anything and I mean anything can happen, look at the weekend Tommy had for instance, getting thrown over the bars and missing the first race purely because a mechanic from another team stepped into his path, kind of puts me being annoyed into perspective doesn’t it… Now we have just a few days off before heading to Silverstone, I really like the track and know that it’s important to keep our momentum going, I guess being positive we’re only going to get stronger from here on in, 3 or 4 weeks ago I had a complicated shoulder surgery so to come back and 1, 2 at Assen bodes well for when I get some strength back, fingers crossed!!!

Big crowds at our first BSB Assen visit!!

I guess all that remains to say is a massive thanks once again to professor Funk, to the circuit medics, to all the fans that came from the UK and the new Dutch fans we got to meet and most importantly to my Paul Bird Motorsport Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team for all their effort, roll on Silverstone, take it easy, Shakey #67  

Post Cadwell, pre Assen..

Well, once again I’m real sorry for the delay I getting this blog out to you guys but I am pleased to say that things are getting better all the time in Shakey’s world, I’ve put in so much hard work both physio and training wise that the shoulder is getting better and better so now and I can’t wait to get back out on my bike again at Assen next weekend, fortunately for me the team are giving me a little run out on the teams Superstock bike this week before heading over to Holland so we can get an idea of where we’re at which will be cool.

Going backwards briefly Cadwell Park had started well for us, we had good pace immediately even though some of the others had tested there, but as you will all know it all went horribly wrong in 2^nd free practice and I ended up with a grade four dislocation of my shoulder and some pretty messed up ligament damage, to put it in laymens terms, I ripped all the tendons and ligaments off of my actual collarbone completely and it then decided it wanted to be front to back in my body rather than going from your neck ish across to the top of your shoulder, not cool at all really!!!

Since Cadwell Park I have been doing everything I can to get myself fit again. I was extremely lucky to have had the operation so quickly and the greatly named Professor Funk did a fantastic job to get the shoulder back in position and grafted in some artificial ligaments which was a complete success.

I have been hitting the physio hard every day, my life would’ve been so much easier if I’d just slept at the treatment room lol, sometimes going more than once a day and trying to train to make it as strong as possible for the first round of the Showdown which is when the championship gets serious.

After the crash I set myself the goal of coming back for the Showdown at Assen, I certainly haven’t come so far this season to give up now, especially when that third title is still in sight and the Showdown can create some real unpredictability in the races.

I did consider riding at Donington the other week when I had a big improvement during the week leading up to it but I didn’t want to risk making the injury worse at a round where I needed to be on the podium for it to make the difference so the Rapid Solicitors team and I decided it would be best for me to rest and get as healthy as possible for Assen.

I really like the track at Assen and it is a good feeling to be going back there. I have raced there before in both Moto GP and WSB days and that I suppose could be an advantage but at the same time most of us have experienced the track previously. The key thing for me will be my shoulder and it is impossible to know how it will be until we get out on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki on track, It’s definitely a physically demanding layout and I am sure that it won’t be easy but it is what it is and I will still be giving it my all to get the best result possible, getting to have a quick run out on my team mates Superstock bike this week will help to blow out a few cobwebs before jumping back onto my bad boy in Holland and hopefully stepping on top of the rostrum..

Everything will 100% depend on my shoulder, at the end of the day i didn’t fall off pushing the bike too hard at Cadwell Park, in fact the accident was only as bad as it was because I was 110% on top of my game, sounds daft I know but it was actually saving the accident that caused it to be as bad as it was, had I just lost the front I would have just slid down the track and that would have been that, it was catching the crash that caused the drama!!! We have shown a good pace all year and the team are doing an incredible job so it will all be down to my strength from here on in, the only thing I can promise you is that I genuinely couldn’t have done anymore to be fit!!!
 
Hope to see some of you at Assen for what I am sure is going to be one of the best events of the season, I can’t wait to get out there and get this Showdown started!

Take it easy and cross everything you have for me guys and girls, Shakey #67