Imola!!

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 1^st 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 10^th 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 5^th 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 2^nd 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 1^st 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, 8^th, 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 2^nd in the first race about 3 or 4 seconds up the road and I managed to catch and pass him to take 6^th 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

Nothing like using all the track ;-)!!!!

Nurburgring.....

I'm not going to make this the usual full on race report i normally try to do after a race weekend, the reason, i'm frustrated, so, so frustrated with the way things are going right now, i know the saying is you make your own luck but bloody hell give me a break, if that saying's true then i need to find a new recipe for my luck because mine seems to be all bad!!!

I guess in someways the support and comments i get from you guys go some way to makingthings a bit easier to deal with i mean lets face it, i'm riding in a World Championship not a club meeting so to go from pretty much last and come through to 9th and 10th isn't terrible but you need to understand how badly i want to be racing at the sharp end, fighting for podiums etc, that's what's important to me not how many people i manage to pass on my way to a top 10 position, i wasn't out of the top 5 all weekend in Germany, in fact i lead sessions, ran top 3 and generally had a real good podium position pace the WHOLE weekend so to get the results i did all because of a crash that came out of nowhere, aaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh is the only word that springs to mind!!!!!

One thing that was good about the weekend was the fact that we further improved the bikes chassis feeling, in Silverstone we made good progress with the way we had the bike turning and in Germany we made another good step, i'm really hopeful that we'll be able to start with a real good bike in Imola plus we have the setting we got in the test there earlier in the year so it should be all good.

The final real good thing that happened was the lap we did of the Nordschliefe after the race, bloody hell, what an eye opener that was, it turned out quite amusing because with a Fiat Punto we smoked a GSXR 1000 rider , i used him as a bit of a guide in the first instance then through one real tricky part of the circuit we passed him, i'd love to go back there with an instructor and a quick car, the place is awesome!!!

We headed back to the UK monday to collect Zack then the following day we went off home, i'm looking forward to getting some more training in whilst we're here and desperately hoping for a far stronger end to the season, this definitely hasn't been a year to talk about with the grand kids has it, mind you, i haven't got them so it's all good!!! Take it easy and i'll catch up with ya soon, Shakey #67

Hard at it!!

Race two after passing Troy..

How cool is this pic!!!!

Just about to start a highly amusing lap of the Nordschliefe!!!

Nurburgring day 1...

Hey guys and girls, just a really quick update, good start so far, started this morning and lead pretty much the whole session, we only used 1 set of tyres for the whole hour session as we wanted to fix the bike rather than fire new tyres at it, we dropped to 5th by the end of the session when everybody else used their second set but it was all good.

Provisional qualifying we went one step better, i was actually pretty disappointed as Carols and i had been P1 and P2 all session but right at the end with new tyres i never improved my lap time and a few did so i ended up provisional front row in P4, if i get a chance i'll update you guys again tomorrow, take it easy, Shakey#67

Not the most impressive pic i know but it's the only one i have right now!!!

Holidays are over!!!

Well people, this is it, the summer break is now officially over, i'm sat here in the motorhome typing this on Thursday morning here at the Nurburgring, shortly i'm off over to see the guys in the garage to get the low down on what's been going on during the summer break and i might see if i can get taken around the famous circuit in one of the fast taxis, they have things like M5's that you can get driven around in so that should be amusing!!!, i can't wait to get back out on the bike tomorrow, last year i really liked the layout and flow of the track but the races weren't two of my best but hopefully this year we can rectify that a little!!

It's been a real good break and i've really enjoyed the time out and actually getting to spend a few weeks at home without having to jump on a plane or drive up to the UK, it's made a pleasant change i tell you!!! I managed to get a fair bit of cycling in over the break, had the in laws down, had mum down for a little while oh and pick up some kind of stomach infection that wrote me off for about 8 days which wasn't at all good but i think we're out the other side of that now, sat right now watching Reg making a dick of himself trying to learn some new motocross game i brought for the PS3 which is quite amusing!!

Right for now i'm gonna crack on for a bit, i'l update you guys again real soon ok, i know this update's been a while coming but don't worry, i'm on it!!! Talk to you soon, Shakey#67

Silverstone...

I have to admit things had been pretty manic on the run up to Silverstone, we had to come to the UK a few days before the event as there’s a number of important things that we needed to try to make some headway with so we spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rushing around boxing a load of stuff off.

Thursday morning however it was off to work we go, the weekend started with an interview at Whittlebury Hall just near Silverstone with fastbikes magazine, it seemed kind of weird in a way doing an interview for them, back in the day when Colin owned it and I was wheeling across the South of France an interview with them would’ve been the last thing I’d imagine doing, ironically the journo Simon Roots last interviewed me at the end of 2003 but for Superbike magazine, he explained the differences from a journalist point of view of the whole road testing thing and by all accounts it’s not the fun it used to be, in fact, far from it!!!!

After an hour or so of reminiscing the past we talked a bit about the present and possibly the future however I’ve no idea yet what the future holds so that part of the interview past fairly quick, a fairly rapid close to the interview and we were rushing off to the circuit for the press conference.

After all that kind of stuff was done I got on my scooter to get out and investigate the new layout, to be honest I was really pleasantly surprised with what I saw, on the tv the track looked really really fast which is potentially a big problem for us and whilst it wasn’t exactly slow it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought.

Free practice was always going to be about getting the gearing sorted out, fundamentally chassis wise we knew we’d be there or thereabouts as the bike always works to a degree it’s just a case of refining the chassis for each circuit, we tried a few different options gearing wise and never quite hit the nail on the head but that was only to be expected at a brand new track where lap times were tumbling by the session, by the end of the session we finished 5^th or 6^thwhich was a decent enough start, we knew we had plenty more to come it’s just that at that point nobody realized just how much more we’d need!!!

1^st qualifying also passed without any dramas, we found just over a second but managed to slip back to 13^th which I was pretty pissed about, once again though we had more to come for the following day and just being in the top 20 ensured a place in Superpole so it was all good.

Saturday’s morning qualifying was in pretty crap conditions, it had rained over night and there were a few damp patches and spots of rain about, I ended the session 5^th I think after leading nearly the whole session and I’d got to within a 10^th of a second of my lap time of the previous afternoon in good conditions so I knew we’d made some good progress.

Free practice in the afternoon passed again without drama and another chunk off my lap time, so it was onwards and upwards now to see if my prediction regarding whether or not I’d sussed Superpole was true or not…..

I managed to put in a good enough lap initially on a new pair of race tyres for P5 which took me through to Superpole 2 which pleased me.

In Superpole 2 I threw down a lap on my 1^st qualifier which initially put me P4 so I was well chuffed but I knew I’d need to use my second tyre as only 8 could go through, then, the revelation of all revelations happened, I knocked another .3 of a second off my best all alone on a qualifying tyre, as I crossed the line I saw myself P4 again, the chequered flag was out and I was so chuffed you wouldn’t believe, finally my shot at a front row and bang on time for my home race, I rode that in lap with the biggest grin on my face however my face changed when I was entering the pits and the grandstand position board showed me P9, I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!!!!

Morning warm up went pretty good, we tried another setting change that worked really well and had the bike the most balanced it had been all weekend, that session came and went and it wasn’t too long at all after that my pre race nerves set in, my poor stomach was doing back flips, I did an interview on the grid for some radio station and the guys question was something like “so Shakey, home race, how are you feeling, what are your thoughts right now?” my reply was “to be honest with you, my only thought right this second is whether I sat on the toilet for long enough earlier, judging by the way my stomach feels right now I’m guessing not!!!” the guy didn’t look particularly impressed with my answer!!!!!

Anyway, enough of that, I got a pretty good start as the lights went out, they held us on the line for a long time but as I said my start was good and my run down to turn 1 was good, I got a pretty good run through turn 1 but got a little bit humped in the first few turns, my first lap through the stadium section was all it took to tell me it was pretty much all over before it’d even started, coming on the start finish the bike was sideways, something I’d not had a problem with all weekend, the rear tyre wasn’t working at all and I just kept losing valuable tenths at every corner exit, there was a point where I thought that’s enough, I’m pulling in but lets face it it’s not like I’ve got a million points behind me this year so I stuck at it to finish 9^th.

I got another good start in race two, in fact probably better than race 1, I settled in around 7^thbut this time despite not changing a thing other than the rear tyre.

I had a pretty good run to be fair and felt really comfortable in the group battling for 4^th place, it was absolutely imperative that I made a perfect exit onto the straight whilst in the group as it enabled me to get towed maybe a quarter of a lap down the straight which kept me in contention. With two laps to go I put a pass on Biaggi and was preying to keep my 6^th position, I thought come on, smooth, fast, no mistakes, it’s just two laps you can do it, I still believe I could however Max passed me down the back straight so f***in fast that I thought oh ok, maybe you can’t then!!! The long and the short of it was I rode the last lap trying as hard as I could to be on the back of the group, riding wide sweeping lines to take advantage of any mistakes but all of a sudden Sylvain came up the inside of me into the right before the hairpin, I immediately swept out wide to try to out drive him between the hairpin and the following left onto the last straight and so so nearly got him back but didn’t quite pull it off which meant I had to roll the throttle losing me any chance of attacking him so it was P8 for me then.

Obviously I’m pretty gutted with the weekend and the results, I’m real pleased for Cal Crutchlow, he rode mega and he’s a good kid but it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes ago that I was beating the likes of him, Leon, Leon etc week in week out so for them guys to be on the podium whilst I had to settle for 8^th and 9^th is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but I guess it is what it is, we’ll keep on pushing as hard as we possibly can and see where it takes us.

Massive thanks this weekend to the British crowd, you guys all made me feel real special, it was mega to be appreciated that way and the words of encouragement made me feel mega and really cheered me up, big thanks also to my mechanics for all their hard work, they got my bike better and better as the weekend went on so good job guys!!! Take it easy everyone and I’ll update you again soon. Shakey #67

Full gas!!!!!

Brno...

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 12^th and 9^th 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 6^th I think after running as high as 4^th 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 12^th, 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 9^th, 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!!!!!!

Getting all tucked in!!!!!

Misano...

What's that saying, wrong place at the wrong time......Kinda sums up my qualifying performances doesn't it really!!!!!

With Misano being the venue for my only podium last season i was obviously looking forward to getting back there racing, that and the fact that we'd tested there literally the week before so we were up to speed had me well excited!!!

The weekend really got going well, we were constantly up and around the top 5 positions and feeling pretty comfortable with it, the test the week before had really helped, in fact it didn't take too long at all to get going every bit as fast as we'd been the week previous.

Obviously writing this like two weeks after the event some of the details are a little bit sketchy but in provisional qualifying friday afternoon i think i ended up 4th or 5th which was more than ok for now.

The following morning however in 2nd qualifying we got going even better and comfortably with a pretty shabby lap jumped up to P2, however in hindsight this was maybe a little bit of my undoing as with the session being in the morning i.e far far cooler track temperature wise the bike was feeling really good but that afternoon when i got out on track ready for Superpole the bike never felt much different, it seemed to be working the same and i felt fast and confident but the lap times just weren't coming, we were quite a way off, we fired in a new set of tyres just before the end of the final practice and i think i got to within half a second i so of my morning time with a chew the screen kinda lap, oh shit, this is gonna be tricky.......indeed it was.

We scraped through the 1st session using only race tyres which is always good but it was the second session that went horribly wrong for a change, i'm not even gonna bore you with details, the long and the short of it was i couldn't go as fast even with a qualifier as i'd been in the morning on a race tyre so i missed the cut to go through and ended up a totally disgruntled 15th.

Morning warm up the following day brought a turn around in fortune again, the cooler temperature saw me go P1 just a tenth off my fastest time of the weekend with no problem whatsoever, blimey, all i needed was a good start and first couple of laps, how many times have you heard that from me!!!!!

For once this year i did get a sensible start and i got stuck right in through the first chicane making up about 8 places, yeeessssss i thought we're on t, on the run down to the real tight rights i had a look at sneaking another place or two and nearly went in too hot but then Camier came up my inside even hotter sitting me up and for the next few turns i got a bit humped and lost about 4 or 5 places due to being a bit off line, i got myself together and started going forward again but then i made a mistake and run straight on a bit into Quercia losing a couple of spots, i got them pretty much straight back which was handy then set after the group in front i caught and passed James Toseland and Johnny Rea and finally ended up 9th, not great.

For race two i knew i needed to get involved early on and not lose any time, my start wasn't too bad and i ran in the top ten before finishing up a slightly better 7th however this time i was much much closer to the front, sure Max had gone but the group for 2nd were about 3 or 4 seconds up the track which starting for 15th i wasn't too unhappy about.

So to sum up the weekend i guess all i can say is i've got to get it together in qualifying, once again i showed albeit at the wrong times that i've got the pace over a single lap and i have real good race pace over race duration i just need to start from the front to run at the front, hopefully we're getting there, big thanks to the boys for all their hard work, on wards and upwards or downwards as the case ended up to Imola for the official Pirelli test......

Hi mum!!!!!