Month: July 2013

James East – Idaq Motorsport
National Superstock 1000 Round 7 Brands Hatch GP

The tipping point.

I was ready to push for a podium at my favourite track and this would happen in the glorious sunshine at the Brands Hatch GP circuit

Free Practice
I took it easy in this session as due to residential ruling everyone would practice on the Indy circuit. My time of 47.732 was good enough for 7^th overall.

Qualifying 1
I hit the GP circuit for the first time but the session was next to pointless for me. Every lap I entered it started raining so spent much of the session in the pits. With the promise of fine weather later on, the session wasn’t worth risking in the ‘iffy’ conditions.

Qualifying2

Weather reports were correct and we had sunshine for this session. The difficulty with this session was the volume of riders on track. 49 Riders were all trying to put a fast time in and I found it difficult finding space. I tried a few settings in this session as we had only had 3 laps on the GP track previously in QP1.
With 5 minutes to go I asked Dave to put the bike back to a setting I knew I could go fast on. First flying lap I went from 12^th to 8^th and the last flying lap of the session I did a 1:28:969 to put me 4^th. I didn’t think the time was good enough when I looked at the Aim Dash but was relieved it was good enough for a front row when they told me in parc ferme.

Warm Up
We changed the gearbox selector forks over night as there was significant wear on them which made me miss a few gears in QP2 and the gearbox felt good in warm up, a broken tyre warmer meant I went out on a cold rear tyre which didn’t help matters, Dave had to guess the cold pressure which ended up rising higher than expected so I was sliding around a lot and backed it off to take it easy.

Race
I was so focused prior to the race, I told myself ‘You will not get a bad start’. It was a good start and I was in third in to paddock hill bend. Tommy Aquino pushed too hard into Druids and ran wide allowing me through to 2^nd behind Adam Jenkinson.
I got great drive out of Surtees and rushed up on Jenkinson going down Pilgrims Drop making the pass into Hawthorns. I haven’t seen the brake pressure on the data for the over take but I’m sure it will be high, I came from about 3 bike lengths back to make the pass for the lead and just about held a fast line.
From here I just settled in to a steady rhythm and was still learning. My pace was good enough to keep the people behind me at bay in the low 1:29’s. I kept at this pace for the first four laps then on lap 5 I felt good to push on. I pulled a tenth or 2 to create a little bit of a gap but the whole time I kept having little moments of missing gears. On lap 6 the gearbox locked on the exit of Surtees and thankfully didn’t end up in an accident when Joe Burns hit my back wheel and rearset.

The bike went back in to gear but the rear set was bent and I was really struggling to get it in to gear. I would have to retire when the gearbox stopped selecting all together.

I am still gutted as I felt I had the pace in me to win the race, I felt really good out front seeing clear track ahead of me.
What I have taken from the Brands Hatch is confirmation that I am comfortable with the 1000cc stock machine and I will be able to push for race wins in future rounds.
I will be pushing for a front row qualifying position at Oulton Park and then get to the front early on to pull a gap. I really want to win. I want to be a superbike rider and work to win in that category to, so it’s now time to prove I am capable.

Thank you to everyone who is making it possible for me to be competing. And thank you to my Dad for always supporting me.

Thanks go out to James’s Personal Sponsors
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – Idaq.com – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk -Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown

James East  National Superstock 1000 2013
Round 6 Snetterton

Increasing temperatures throughout the weekend made it fantastic conditions for the British Superbike Championship at Snetterton and with this round being the last of the first half of the season it was time for me to bring together all I’ve learnt so far this season to see what was now needed to push for podiums in the 2^nd half of the season

Free Practice
I felt comfortable straight away as we had tested at Snetterton the Tuesday before. I improved straight away from our test time by 0.4 with a 1:52:641 which put me 3^rd overall on a crowded track of 52 riders.

Qualifying 1
We pushed a bit harder in this session and I ended the session in 5^th place and improved by 3 tenths.
I found the bike to be sat a little low once we pushed in to the low 1:52’s so made some changes but wasn’t completely satisfied. The qualifying time was 1:52:354.

Qualifying 2
In this session we put some more weight on the front of the bike and it helped me to hold a line but the rear of the bike was unpredictable and quite unstable.
I improved anyway by pushing a little harder, but not over the limit, to a time of 1:52:235, this put me 5^th in session again but qualified 6^th as Jimmy Storar had a faster time from the first qualifying session.

I  was happy with the 2^nd row position as this is what we set out to achieve but wasn’t satisfied with the setup, we was looking for some more grip on the side of the tyre but didn’t quite find it. Either way my confidence was up, I knew I could run the pace whether I was comfortable with the bike or not.

Warm Up
Dave and I tried a softer spring for warm up to try and generate some feel from the rear of the bike but this was unsuccessful, it made the bike softer naturally but I didn’t gain the feel I wanted. The added squat meant that in the fast corners the bike was sitting down making the front rake out a bit too far forcing me wide. It was worth a try but we would return to the qualifying set up with some slight damping changes. My practice starts were awful to, so I was concentrating on the start for the rest of the day.

Race
I got a great launch but Jimmy Storar moved over into my path making me check my throttle. I held my own though on the first lap and was in 9^th.
On lap 2 I moved past Filip Backlund at the Bomb hole, it was pretty last minute but I made it stick and set off after Jimmy Storar. The gap was about a second or just over but I closed most of that in a lap. I felt really strong at the start of the race.

On lap 4, 5 and 6 we were behind the safety car after Josh Day crashed at the left after the back straight. He was fine but it spread dirt and grass across the track. This did me a favour and closed the pack up despite Hudson Kenaugh trying to play games from 5^th place under the safety car.
When the race was restarted I quickly realised I was losing some drive off the turn to the other riders and I’d have to make the time up on the brakes. I stuck with them but didn’t make any sudden over takes as the front tyre was on its limit in many of the braking areas and had been giving me warnings.
On lap 8 I pushed by Jimmy Storar to move to 6^th and moved up behind Lee Johnston who was strong on the brakes, he however lost the front and fell at the hairpin on lap 9 which moved me to 5^th.
I was safe here and Initially closed up to the leaders but had warnings again from the front tyre doing so, I had to change my lines slightly braking earlier as to not lose the front which must of been scorching hot on the 49 degree track temperature.
I missed a few gears on a couple of laps coming on to the back straight which made me lose a second or so combined so I was stuck in 5^th.

On the start of the last lap I thought to myself do all you need to do to keep the bike up right to the finish and was overtaken going in to turn one by Filip Backlund. I was strong into turn one and he run wide so I retook him and defended but he still made a move at the hairpin, he clearly had more grip than I did and I did everything I could to get on terms with him but at the flag I was 6^th with a best time of 1:52:190.

All in All I am pleased with the result. It is the first time I’ve run at the front and my best qualifying and finish of the season so far. It also confirmed that I have learnt how to ride the bike and from now on we will push for podiums. The business plan as such which was agreed at the start of the year was to learn the bike and class as much as possible in the first half of the season then bring it all together so I could flick the competitive switch in myself to push for race wins. I think this is very possible after I turned up the pace and brought home this finish just 4 seconds off of the race win.

I can’t thank my mechanic Dave Hopkinson of Downshift England enough for his commitment and general hard work this weekend, also for Idaq Motorsport for giving me the best chance to be competitive this year in this class as well as both Pauls of PCR Performance for putting together a fantastic motorbike.

Brands Hatch GP is the next round which is my favourite track. Round 7 will be the first race of the 2^nd half of the season. Here I will be pushing for a race win but will be looking to bring home valuable points no matter what. Top 10 in the championship is my goal for the season.

Thanks go out to James’s Personal Sponsors
Homechoice Carpets-Leeds – Idaq.com – GHM Services – ToiletSpares.co.uk -Cougar Leathers – Bikers Division Ltd – Daytona Boots – R&G Racing – Samco Sport By Racebikebitz Ltd – Paul ‘Noddy’ Brown