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East Fortune April 2012 -
Well when I got to east fortune on the Friday night after work the weather was rather rubbish to say the least! Hail stones and chucking it down with rain! Not cool, the way things were I didn’t think we would be racing on the Saturday! But when we woke up sat the rain had cleared up a bit and wasn’t too bad J for the 1st practice I went out with the inters on as the track was still kinda damp in places so just took it easy and got a feel for the conditions and the tyres J bike felt good and I was ready for qualifying J track was pretty much dry for qualifying so it was back to the slicks and I felt pretty good J I was buzzing round happy enough and felt comfortable even when I was pushing and ended up 2nd on the grid behind torks p J there was only 0.15 in the times so I was right there with him J game on
In race 1 I got a decent start and was in 3rd round the 1st lap behind bruce and torquil so I knew it was going to be tough race! The times were pretty good and I was happy enough to just sit and watch the 2 leaders J at one point I was upto 2nd and we all swapped round then I was back to 3rd lol I really enjoy this kind of racing! And they are really good to compare myself to aswell J I was happy enough to get to the flag in 3rd but the sky wasn’t looking to happy for race 2…
Torks and bruce didn’t even bother going out in race 2 just coz they weren’t sure about the conditions. I felt happy enough and holeshotted the start and cleared off J there was a few
“incidents” shall we say! Like when the guy wrecked at railway and coz of the yellow flags I had to go 1st gear right down the straight behind a backmarker!! Safe to say I was fuming!! I had pushed to build up a big lead and then it just shrunk in 1 straight! No happy! Again I dropped the hammer and took off but with 3 laps to go the sky started to open and it started raining! Not ideal when your out on slicks!! It got the the stage that even I was scared and the rain was pinging off my visor and I was frozen!! I done the full slowing down lap tucked up race style coz I was trying not to get soaked!! Bike in the gazebo and straight in the caravan lol but a win by 8 seconds, well ill take that J
I was pretty pumped up for race 1 on the Sunday, just was itching to race! I was 3rd round turn 1 up to 2nd at railway and then went round the outside of torks at snake and put the hammer down J the pitboard was going up and up and I could see I was starting to pull away and felt really good on the bike J I eventually won by about 10 seconds from torks and was lapping in the 59’s again which felt good J now I was ready for race 2 J
I knew this was going to be tough coz the 2 main guys had new rubber on and this was the Scottish race so this was the one that counts J it was game on right from the start and I was chuffed to rip the holeshot ahead of the 2 others J torks and bruce hounded me the 1st 5 laps then just as we were getting to the back markers torks came past and I got stuck behind a back marker, I wasn’t happy!! Every corner had a slower guy at it and when your going flat out like we were it was getting pretty sketchy! On the last lap torks got a really bad backmarker and it closed everything up but in the end I finished 2nd but right on the winner so wasn’t to unhappy, but I knew I could run with torquil if it had been a clean race! Awell J
Again the 2 main championship contenders didn’t go out in the last race of the week end but I was still ripping round J it was the last race of the week end so I didn’t bother with new tyres but still managed to run my fastest lap of the week end on lap 2 of this race, with no one chasing me and a clear track infront! Hmmm how can I not do that with new tyres on lol J I was happy enough out in front with the lead and I think it was over 10 seconds at the line so I was really chuffed J mintttt J fingers crossed for some more good racing at knockhill in 2 weeks J
Croft 30th/31st March, 1st April 2012
Well it was safe to say I was buzzing for croft!! Couldn’t wait to ride the big bike round there and try and beat my laptimes from last year J we arrived on Thursday night and just chilled out and tried to help matt learn the track lol so we woke to sunny skies for the test day on the Friday and I was so excited J went out for the first session and the track felt awesome! There was a real line of rubber from the cars pretty much all the way round the track so some corners were grippy and others not so much so it made reading the track a bit difficult but I was loving it!! The track was actually ripping up the front tyre on the big bike!! Weird considering the power coming from the back wheel but awell J I done 3 sessions on the Friday morning and was real happy with the bike and the feel of the tyres so I just called it a day J I cleaned the bike and got the chain changed, tyres changed, checked the oil etc and we were ready for the qualifying session on Saturday morning J
Well it wasn’t looking good for the Saturday weather wise and I wasn’t looking forward to having to ride in the rain lol but luckily the track was dry for my first session, and the bike felt mint with a new set of slicks on J I went out but the bike felt realy weird and it turned out the tyre pressures were too high so when I went back out I was struggling for clear track as there was like 50 bikes on track! Not good but I followed bryan round and ended up 2nd on the grid!! I was well chuffed J but I knew it was going to be a tough race!!
For the 1st race I got a blinder of a start and was 2nd through turn’s 1 and 2 behind jimmy storrar but then he highsided big time at the chicane and I was in the lead! I started pulling away from the guys behind me and was feeling good J I was starting to slide around the fastest corners and was a bit worried, was not a good feeling when the back end was coming right round on the brakes L not good! I thought dad might have no checked the pressure but it was time to come in L rolled down pit lane and straight away you could see the tyre was totally
deflated, just like myself!! Gutted!! 2 second lead with only a handful of laps to go and it was done L gutted! I made up for it in race 2 tho, went wire to wire in the lead with mike on another zx10 kawasaki pushing me all the way! Eventually I ended up winning by a good margin so I was really chuffed! Defo made up for the disappointment of race1 J
The 1st race on the Sunday was the big one, the ken redfern trophy race! I felt like I had the pace to run at the front but I didn’t think I would be able to fend off the guys on the new tyres. I was 2nd off the start behind bruce, quickly made the pass for the lead and was just trying to run my own race. It was a hard race and there was 2 guys hounding me all the way and bruce did make the pass into the 1st corner on the last lap. I quickly shoved my bik eup the inside going round turn 2 and was away again! Still had to deal with a lot of backmarkers but I managed to hang on and won! Felt so good! Bike was power sliding but I was still 1st J! So It was podium time to do some interviews and get presented with the big trophy J happy lad J
There was only 1 race left for the week end and I think we saved the best till last J another good start and the nit was a battle between myself, bruce, mike and martin J we were a fair bit ahead of the rest of the guys and we were just swapping places lap after lap J mike led the start of the race I led the middle and then bruce came past on the last lap. He was really defensive on the last lap so I couldn’t pass him but it was a cracking race and I really enjoyed it J another brilliant week end for me and sammi and both bikes safe and in 1 piece J good result so im well happy J
KDMC -
Well there wasn’t many superbikes lining up for round 1 of the kdmc championship and to be honest I didn’t even want to race but the races were Scottish championship races so if I didn’t race I would be missing out. For the 1st session of the day (free practice) it was that kinda dampy wetty conditions which is even worse than if it was just totally wet! So I went out on the inters just to bed the new brake pads in and get a feel for the track coz I didn’t know if it was going to rain later in the day or not. Fortunately this was the only damp session I had all week end and the sun was soon out and it was roasting hot!! Mid 20’s in the afternoon but in being fair that was too hot! So anyways we went out on track for the qualifying session and the track was totally dry, equipped with a new back slick I was ready to go J I followed bruce for a few laps and felt like I was doing a decent pace so once everyone started trying to race each other I knew no one was going to go faster so I just pulled in J I ended up 3rd on the grid for the week end so I was pretty chuffed with that J but the times were way slower than what I was expecting so I knew we had to get the finger out for the races J for
race 1 I got a mega start and was able to run a good pace for most of the race right on the 2 leaders J torks and bruce were going at it and I was just happy to sit and watch the show lol I could keep up with them but couldn’t actually make a pass stick as all the bikes were so evenly matched. I was happy with 3rd at the flag and was like 1 second behind the winner so I was chuffed J race was going to be a scrap ;) again I got a good start but got bumped at turn 1 and was back in 5th heading down towards railway. I made up 1 place at railway and then another coming round esses 2 and I was back in the same position as race 1, right behind torks and bruce watching them do battle lol torks missed a gear just as I clicked top gear going down the straight and what I fright I got!! Bruce swerved and then I had to swerve to miss the 2!! Change of boxers required! So I was up to 2nd behind bruce for a few laps the torks passed me back then passed bruce for the lead lol he ran off the side of the track coming out of snake and kicked up all the stones and rocks at the side of the track!! So I got roosted moto x style! Big rock smashed through the screen, smacked my helmet and I took a boulder to the shoulder and gave me a dead arm! Not nice but I just thought bring it home! Torks then ran on at hannahs and I was left to finish about a second behind bruce! And 3rd and a 2nd and only half a second off my fastest ever lap time and that was only the 1st round? Job done!! Roll on croft!!
East Fortune Test
For the East Fortune test day I was really hoping to get a feeling for the track again and just make sure the bike was 100% so I only did 2 sessions in the morning before lunch. Bike was good and even on worn tyres I felt like I was going well. It was hard to really get a good race feel as all the sessions were totally packed and there was bikes everywhere but I was happy enough.
Knockhill Test Day
To be honest I was expecting wind rain and hail for the first test on the new year
but it couldn’t have been more of the opposite, blue skies not a cloud in the sky
and sunny! Makes a change but hey I wasn’t complaining J so for the first session
I was out on really old tyres from last year just to make sure everything was working
and just to bed myself back in to being on a race bike again. I was also following
my little sister for a few laps as it was her first shot on her 2012 Suzuki gsxr
600 J immediately I felt the changes we made with the suspension had made the wheelie
problem even worse! It was wheelieing in places it didn’t last year lol so for session
2 we re-
Beginning of 2012
Well after a long winter I was really excited to get back out on the Kawasaki zx10. I had been doing a lot of moto cross just to try and get my strength up so was pretty excited to see if it had worked. We also made a few changes to the bike suspension to try and stop it from wheeling all the time so knockhill was going to be interesting.
