A cold and bleak winter’s testing was followed by a sunny weekend for round 1 of the championship at Donington Park.
Photo: Colin Port
43 riders strong, the Superstock championship has a line up of varied riders and machines for 2015, with the usual contenders of recent years on the Kawasaki ZX10R, but many competitors choosing to run the all new BMW and Yamaha machinery.
We got off to a great start, with both me and Hego in the top 10 in practice, me 7th and Dan 8th with average times in the 1:34’s.
I didn’t feel comfortable in the practice session, the bike was moving a lot and hard to bring down to an apex, so we reviewed the data and went to work on an improvement for qualifying.
Qualifying practice didn’t go to plan, I quickly found that we had gone the wrong way with the set up and the bike was very difficult to ride with very little grip. I was unable to put a good time in so again we put in some work to bring a new set up to Qualifying 2.
Qualifying 2 saw us improve the bike however it was still violent on the throttle with seemingly little grip to be found. I pushed as hard as I could without putting myself in to a position where a crash was likely and we got to a time in the 1:33’s good enough for 15th on the grid.
We changed spring rates and the bike’s geometry for Warm up which worked, we hold solved some of the pumping issues and gained some stability, so with the bike feeling the best it had felt, we kept the newly found set up for the race.
A good launch kept me with the row in front in the first corner. I got on the throttle early and drove inside many people at Hollywood to get away with an early group.
Making my way through the group I got to the front and 8th place on lap 4 and started to go for the Top 7 in front of me, but on lap 6 a big warning was to come when I exited the foggy esses. The bike broke grip once, twice and the third time kicked me out of the seat, at which point some of the people in the group around me started to come by.
The new tyre had masked over a set up problem looming, and from lap 6 I had major problems with grip and pumping. I was out of the seat and sliding just trying to hang on for the end of the race, and at the end we would finish in 13th place.
I am happy to get off to the start of the season on the championship table without any setbacks in terms of a crash, we have a lot of work to do in testing, but I am confident we will be able to push for podiums on more familiar circuits in the coming rounds.
My team mate Dan had the worst luck with an un predictable electrical fault, turning his bike off and forcing him to retire. I’m wishing him the best of luck for his next race this coming weekend at Scarborough.
I can’t thank my team enough for the opportunity and package given, and Dave Hopkinson of Downshift Motorsport And Mountain bike for his hard work.
Thank you to our sponsors collectively, and my personal Sponsor Walters Medical, for they’re in put, I can’t wait to get to work for Brands Hatch, round 2, where I hope to bring them and the team as a whole closer to, or better yet, on the podium.