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 7th 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 12th to 8th and the last flying lap of the session I did a 1:28:969 to put me 4th. 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 2nd 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