East Fortune -
Going into eastfortune I was leading the Scottish by 18 points. As it was going to turn out it was the
week end from hell! I was feeling good going into the practice, I was out on track doing my thing and the bike felt different. I put that down to the different seat unit I was running. As I tipped into railway after about 4 laps the back end came right round on me! I was spooked, it was a proper big slide! I didn’t think I had done anything wrong. I tipped into esses 1 and the same happened so I pulled into the pits! Turned out the exhaust had burst and was dragging on the ground! Scary, but the bike was fixed and I was ready for qualifying. During qualifying I was feeling really good, was going round doing my thing but I was really struggling to hook 5th gear coming out of snake. Was a weird thing and it was bothering me but I still managed to qualify 3rd behind deej and torks. The crew had a look at the shifter but couldn’t find anything. This race was important, it was the Scottish. I got a decent start, made my way upto 2nd on the first lap but torks was onit and already starting to pull away. I thought right lets go, but coming round railway the bike died! It just stopped. I was gutted! I was in tears under my helemet, I didn’t have a clue what to do! I switched everything off, pushed the button and it fired up! I was miles back and could feel the championship slipping away. I came ripping down to the hairpin and torks was on his arse in the grass!! Crazy! I was like what the hell is going on!! I went flat out for the next 8 laps and was on a mission! I was running quick laps times, and was flying past people! I passed 2 guys on the last lap and ended up 5th! I was raging! But I still finished but the gap was down to 12 points in the Scottish..
The crew stripped the bike down, checked all the plugs etc and couldn’t find anything wrong. I went out in race 2 and everything seemed ok? No idea what happened. I was following deej on the supersport 600 for the full race and was really enjoying it. I was right on his back wheel the full race ad was feeling good bike seemed ok so I was happy. And I ended up 2nd
The first race on the Sunday was a cracker! Me and torks going flat out for the full race with deej hot on our tails as well. Brilliant race with the 3 of us going over the line with on 0.3 seconds covering us at the flag. Really enjoyed it. For the championship race I didn’t get a good start and wa back in about 6th. I got up to 4th but at the start of lap 3 I had a massive highside. I was really scared lying at the side of the track not being able to feel anything. It really was a big one! After about 20 mins I started to feel ok and was passed fit to ride in the re start! All hell broke loose trying to get the bike fixed and me trying to get changed and back on track! The crew managed to get the bike fixed and I was back on the grid feeling really banged up. And to make it even worse, it was chucking it down with rain. I started from 2nd on the grid and was away in 3rd. during all the confusion and fuss I totally forgot about all the cement dust at the hairpin.. all I had to do was finish… I highsided again out the hairpin and was smacked down onto the track broken collarbone so lost the championship and was really banged up, a really sucky way to end my season never mind theres always 2013..
A massive thanks to everyone who helped me at the last round… Stuart, Chricton, Graham, Colin, The Kirkcaldy Kawa team, Lisa, John the Solows,Sammi and my Dad. What a team.
Knockhill July 2012 -
Going into knockhill i knew it was going to be tough with torquil and bruce etc all there but I knew I could run with those guys. I went out and done a few laps in the wet in morning warm up and wasn’t really looking forward to qualifying with the weather looking pretty dodgy. I went out to qualify on dries but I wasn’t sure how long the rain was going to stay off. I went out gave myself a couple of laps then went for it! I ran into the back of bryan and roy at the hairpin and had to scrap the lap L I went for it on the next lap and I actually ended up on pole J I must have timed it right coz when I came back into the hairpin it was chucking it down with rain!!
It was wet for race 1 which I wasn’t too fussed about but I didn’t want to scarp with anyone so I just focused on getting a good start. I did get a good start, took the lead on lap 1 and held it all the way to the flag J I had a reasonable gap which made life kinda easy, but it was tough just trying to not make any mistakes. In the end it was a good race and a good feeling coz it was my first win at knockhill J
For race 2 it was proper proper wet! Like really wet! I got a rubbish start and bruce made a break at the front! I felt like I was flying and pushing so hard giving the conditions and yet bruce was only just coming back to me every lap! We were onit, miles ahead of everyone else. It took until the very last lap for me to catch bruce but in the end he won by 0.6seconds. dam! But a 1st and a 2nd? Good enough for me J
Race1 on the Sunday looked like it was going to be a good ‘en. It was dry and looked like we might get a good race J I got a decent start and was away in 3rd or 4th. I moved up into 2nd behind torquil and ahead of Donald and was feeling good. I could keep right on torks but just couldn’t pass him, it was going to be a lunge and that could have put the pair of us on the deck which wasn’t ideal. In the end it was a P2 finish and I was happy enough J
Race 2 was identical to race 1 and I was right on torquil the full race. This time I was close heading into the hairpin on the last lap, I went wide to get a good drive out the hairpin and he went defensive. He looked over his left shoulder then his right and both times I was on the opposite side! We had a drag race up the hill and he won by 0.02 of a second! Dam! So close yet so far..
The last race couldn’t have been more different. It was chucking down for the start of the race.I got a decent start and was straight into the lead by lap 2 and started pulling away. Then the red flags came out and as I came over duffis it was like a plane crash! Bikes and bodies lying everywhere! Eventually the race was restarted and immediately there was a drying line. I was in the lead and pulling away but I was trying not to push to hard coz I could feel the front tucking on the drier parts of the track! In the end I cruised over the line with a 7 second gap and was totally pumped! 2 wins and 3 2nd place finishes over the week end will do me nicely! Cant wait for eastfortune now!
East Fortune July 2012 -
Well it wasn’t looking promising when we woke up Saturday morning weather wise :/, kinda drizzly but the track didn’t look to wet. Trust a sidecar to blow up in the very first practice!! So that meant all practice sessions were delayed! After about a 2 hour delay practice finally resumed but typically it down poured right before I went out and I had intermediate tyres on! Damm! I only done 2 laps coz I felt like I was gonna end up on my ass and I wasn’t learning nothing so it wasn’t worth the risk. There was a bad incident in the pits before I even went out to qualify so It was mid afternoon before I was back on track. For the qualifying session it was dry and sunny and I was looking forward to getting out on track J I was following tp and bryan and I thought I was going pretty quick J there was 2 riders on the deck at hanahs so the session was red flagged and we were brought back into the pits. I was actually on pole at this stage but I thought it might not last so I went back out on track. I waited till everyone else had gone and done half a lap then blasted round by myself for a few laps and actually went quicker and did end up on pole which is always nice J due to some incidents and red flags I didn’t actually get a race on the Saturday L
Well I was well up for race 1 of the day, I went out on the same set of tyres from yesterday and they were still feeling good J I got a pretty decent start and was away in like 4th place. I made my way upto 3rd at the end of lap 1 and made a rather ambitious move on torks into railway and ended up running way wide and almost in the field lol so I slotted back into 3rd and at about half way I passed torks for 2nd place right behind bruce. With about 3 laps to go I actually flew past bruce into hannahs without actually meaning too! Lol but it worked and I just tried to put my head down for the last few laps! I kinda got a small gap but I knew bruce and torquil were still going to be pushing hard so I was just trying to do the same! I ended up winning the race and I was pumped! Was a good feeling beating the champs in a straight up race J I was back running in the 59’s too so I was happy J I just had to figure out how to do it again in the 2nd race J
In this race I actually got a pretty decent jump off the start but got squashed at turn 1 and went down the back straight in about 6th lol I made up a few places into railway and was away behind torquil again. Bruce was in 3rd but started dropping back and that left me and torquil away in the lead. We got held up by a backmarker coming out of pates on about lap 5 or 6 and I got the run down the straight to pass tp for the lead! From then on I just tried to be fast and smooth but my arm was starting to pump up and when tp is right behind you trust me that isn’t a good feeling! But I held on till the flag and won my 2nd race of the day! Happy happy!
Race 3 began with the worst start of my week end! I was well back going through turn 1 and had to squeeze past a few guys at railway to get upto 3rd place going down the back straight. I could see torquil running away so I jammed up the inside into the hairpin and moved into 2nd! I had to push hard so he didn’t get away and actually done my fastest lap of the week end on lap 2! A 59.2 J after a few laps I was right on the back of torks and we were running round pretty quick. He looked back a few times and I nodded a few times just so he knew I was still there haha with about 4 laps to go I could feel us getting quicker and quicker and knew he was starting to push the pace. Going into the last lap I was right on him until he passed a backmarker into the chicane and the guy stopped right in front of me! Gutted and raging!! That put the lead well out my reach but I didn’t give up and kept charging! Tp set the fastest lap of the week end on the last race lap of the week end lol but I knew I could run the pace J I was mega pleased with the way the week end went J roll on knockhill in 2 weeks J
Knockhill June 2012 -
Well im not sure if I was nervous or just scared but I was looking forward to going up against the best superstock riders in britain J to be honest I was hoping for rain but I wasn’t to bothered on the Friday J I wasn’t really looking forward to running the metzler control tyre coz from what I remember about running them on the 600, well they were rubbish. But you have to run them so hey ho.
Things started pretty decent on the Friday in free practice, I was out buzzing round on the tyres and doing not to badly. In the end I was lapping at about 52.5 which is way off what I know I can run on my usual slicks but I ended up 23rd out of 40 odds so I was pretty happy J I didn’t feel too out of my depth when I was chasing the other guys, felt pretty decent following them J another new set of tyres on from qualifying on the Friday afternoon and I was set J
I thought I would give the tyres a few laps to bed in but by the time I had done that they were passed their best! Everytime I opened the throttle I felt the bike was sliding away from me and it was horrible! The front felt like it was going to tuck at every turn and I ended up down in 31st position! If it was wet on the Saturday I would have to start from the 11th row L in the end I knew I could lap quicker but I was kinda annoyed with myself! Lesson learnt, you have to go flat out from the start! Typically it was chucking it down on the Saturday which meant I wasn’t going to go any quicker than Q1 but I still went out to try a few setup changes for the wet and I was feeling good J I was sitting 2nd for a while in the session and when I came in after 10 mins I was 8th quickest! Not bad considering who I was up against J the red flags came out with 15 mins left and the rain really started coming down. I didn’t think I would be able to lap any quicker but I did! I ended up 15th after the session which made me feel a little better but I knew it was still going to be tough from the 11th row! Morning warm up went well and I actually went quicker on the same worm tyres I used in qualifying! Was starting to get a feel for the control tyre but it still wasn’t as good in my opinion as my slicks! I ended up doing 10 laps in warm up and set my fastest on my last lap! I was feeling a bit better for the race but really just wanted to get going coz I was really nervous lol
Sitting on the grid looking at all the big teams around me was pretty daunting but I knew I could go quicker and I just needed a good start! It was a long climb up the hill from the back of the grid but I got a belter of a start and passed the row in front of me! I went wide at turn 1 and went straight for the apex at turn 3 and went up the inside of another few guys! It was total chaos! There was bikes everywhere! Lol when we came out of the hairpin I had a quick check behind me and there was so many bikes! Lol the pitboard said P22 so I knew I had got a decent jump J I was battling with torquil and another couple of guys and actually pulling away from the big group behind when the bike temperature started to rise! It got to about lap 10 and it was up to about 90 degrees! The kawasaki usually runs about 80 so this was bad! I spent the next 2 laps looking at the dash and when it rose upto 106 degrees I knew I had to pull in! I was totally gutted! I was feeling good and really enjoying the race but knew if the engine went pop it would be season over L at least I hopefully pulled in on time and it could possibly be just a temperature sensor switch and could be fixed easily! Fingers crossed we can get out for a play at the reverse direction track night next Tuesday! Roll on t in the park then east fortune! Wooooooooooo!
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.
17th March -
24th March -
6th/7th April -
13th/14th April -
27th/28th April -
8th/9th June -
14th/15th/16th June BSB Knockhill
6th/7th July -
3rd/4th August -
17th/18th August -
14th/15th September -
28th/29th September -
