Month: August 2013

Following a brilliant test on Wednesday 14th August at Cadwell Park we will be at the cicuit this bank holiday weekend from Friday to Monday 23rd to the 26th of August 2013.

We had a successful test where we worked hard all day to generate as much feel as we could from the bike. We achieved this, I could turn fast and meet apex’s and finished the day on a 1:30:8 which would of been good enough for 3rd on the front row of the grid for the race in 2012. More importantly this was achieved on tyres that had done 25 laps or more so the pace is consistant and strong.
I want to win, I think we deserve it and I want it more than anybody so I’m going to take it.
Thanks to PCR Performance for preparing the bike and the whole entire Idaq Motorsport Team for collectively making such a great package.
Also thank you to my personal sponsors. Lets get on the podium.
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 – Idaq Kawasaki – National Superstock – Round 8 – Oulton Park
Back to Oulton Park for round 8 and under turbulent skies. The rain would hold off but an unlucky finish for me.

Free Practice
1:40:439 2^nd in group A. 8^th overall.
Free Practice at Oulton Park quickly made me realise this is still a learning year for me. Even though we used the settings from round one, my riding showed has changed and these settings no longer gave me the turning I needed.
We would change the ride height of the bike and damping sessions after this. Ready for qualifying.

Qualifying 1
1:39:307 2^nd Group A. 8^th overall.
I improved by over a second but lacked the feel from the front end I needed to drop my times further. We would trawl the data further after this session and come to a conclusion for QP2.

Qualifying 2
1:39:199 Group A 5^th. 14^th Overall.
I simply didn’t get my qualifying lap in. It seemed every lap I entered I either came across someone or had a moment. I improved but only slightly.
We improved the bike which was good as I knew I could push through from my qualifying position. Also after the session we quickly found some issue on the data from the point I was letting off the brake and found a solution for this in warm up so I was confident for the race.

Race
I got a great start, launched well and moved to the right of the track and went up the inside of many people.
I had a bit of a dice on the first lap with Lee Johnston but got back past at lodge and made my way forward to the leading group in 9^th position.
I made a mistake at Dears leap which sent me into a wheelie on to the start finish straight. This lost me about .8 of a second and a missed gear on the same lap put me about a second off of Daniel Johnson in front, but on the same lap at Lodge my bike cut out completely and I coasted in to pitlane.

Some wires for the ignition switch had worn and become bare. We believe that this must of surged and blew the ignition fuse turning the bike off as if you turned the key off.

I was gutted as this was yet another non score which wasn’t my fault. However I don’t think I rode well enough in the race either. I showed my inexperience and I need to work on my positioning on the bike which is exactly what I will do at our next test at Cadwell Park on Wednesday 14^th August.

Either way my team worked tirelessly all weekend so I want to thank them for their efforts as well as Dave for putting in the hours for 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