2021 British Superstock 1000 - Round 4 - Thruxton

Round 4 of the British Superstock 1000 Championship was held at Thruxton over the weekend. This season is super condesned due to the Covid pandemic this year, that we are racing bck to back most weekends, with the odd weekend off here and there. It's great to be getting so much seat time and we are making solid progress each time out.

Thruxton is by far the highest average speed track on the British Calender, were we average 110mph (177km/h) lap times around the circuit that is based on a working airfield! The conditions over the weekend were some of the wildest i've ever had to face in riding a bike. Wet one minute, dry the next, wet the very next and so on! Thruxton is known for is abrasive surface, that wears tires out quicker than any other UK circuit, and it was also drying very quickly, which made some of the sessions difficult to know which tires to use.

We had two practice sessions on Friday. It was a soaking wet track for Free Practice 1, and we felt that we had a good set up in the wet. I was 9th quickest in the wet and everything was feeling positive. In the second Free Practice session, it was a drying track and we opted to wait until a few minutes in to decide which tires to go on. It turned out that it was dry at the beginning and then it rained mid way through the session, so I never got a lap in for Free Practice two, there wasn't alot we were going to be able to learn in that session!

On Saturday we had qualifying in the morning then a 15 lap race in the afternoon. I got up to speed quickly, especially after not getting any laps in Free Practice two on the Friday. We put a new rear tire in mid way through the session, as you seem to get 4-5 good laps out of the tire there, then it drops off slightly and it's difficult to improve your lap time from there. I finished qualifying in 9th position. I was pleased with this as the times were so close and felt we could go with the front pack and see what we could do!

I got a good start in Race 1 and managed to go with the front pack for the opening laps. Everyones tires started sliding around from about lap 5, and I didn't manage it as well as the others. I'm not used to having 200 horsepower and the bike going sideways all the time, so it was a sensation I was trying to learn to control as we were going. I had a great battle with my mate Tom Oliver on the Buildbase Suzuki, and I crossed the line in 11th place. I then got promoted to 10th place after another rider was disqualified for for a dangerous manouver. I put in a good laptime which would see me start from 8th in Sundays race.

I got a good launch again on Sunday and got into the slip stream of the leading bunch for the first few laps. I felt much more comfortable today over Saturdays ride, as we had made some really positive changes to the bike and I was understanding how the bike was reacting better. I got into a battle with Billy Mcconnell and Taylor Mckenzie in the middle of the race, and crossed the line 0.2 of a second behind Mckenzie at the end of the race, again in 11th position. I again got promoted to 10th after a rider got disqaulified for post race technical infringement. Although the position was the same as Saturdays race, we were much closer to the leading pack in Sundays race, and my overall race time was much quicker, meaning we were far more consistent.

I'm really proud of our results over the weekend. To be fighitng up against the competition we are, against factory supported teams, with full time staff, I think we are showing our selves in good stead. Each track we go to, we are learning from scratch as we have no prior data, as it's my first year on the bike, and my teams first year working on the Suzuki also. We will continue working hard and giving 100% for when we go to Donington in two weeks time. I'm really looking forward to getting there and seeing what we can do!

Thanks you to AJN Steelstock and Powerslide Motorcycles for making it all happen!

Cheers to everyone for the support!

And to our team sponsors and partners:

Cheers! Levi Day