Racing Recap - Rounds 8 & 9 and Goodwood Revival

Things have been pretty busy here the last few weeks. Since my last report at Snetterton on the 3-5 September, we then headed to Silverstone the following weekend, then onto the Goodwood Revival, then last weekend at Oulton Park. We are now preparing for Donington Park this weekend, which marks our 5th weekend away in a row racing. Fitting my day job in between this and spending time with our whirlind 3 year old Max and 10 week old daughter, Darcie, hasn't provided much time for sitting down and putting my thoughts down, or any time to sit back and think at all really!

Silverstone was round 8 of our championship and I was coming back from breaking a verterbrae and rib only 4 weeks earlier at Donington. Silverstone is a flat and fast circuit and one of th eleast physically demanding circuits on the calendar. We had a good feeling on the bike this weekend. Qualifying it was wet at the beginning of our session but then dry at the end, which mean it was a mad rush to get out at the end of the session. I qualified 6th for the first race. I had one of my best races of the year, finishing 9th and only 7 seconds off the win after 22 laps around the Silverstone circuit. I was feeling really confident for Sundays race 2, and got off to a good start. I got caught out early on in lap 2 and ran wide, unable to avoid contact with Fraser Rogers. I came off, making it a premature end to my race! It was an unfortunate end to such a strong weekend but it was great to show our strength and be fighting up the front.

After a few days at Sublime Designs wrapping bike graphics we headed down to the Goodwood Revival, the largest classic motorsport festival in the world. The entire event is staged in the 1950's/60's, where everyone dresses up from the era, all the music, food stalls, entertainment and of course the cars and bikes etc are all from this era. It was my 5th time competing at this event and it's an honour to be invited every year. I was riding a BSA Goldstar this year with owner/rider Fernando Mendes. While we had some pretty major bike issues (the entire engine blowing up!) We still got to have an amazing experience with the kids (well Max really, Darcie didnt know too much about it!) The saturday night ball where all the riders and drivers attend, with the likes of Jensen Button, Troy Corser and so on in attendance. I believe that next year i'll be teaming up with my usual crew that I have ridden with a few times, Gordon and Sally Russell, on their Manx Norton. 

A few more days at home, a few more nappies changed and a few more bikes wrapped, and we were packing up again and heading up to the beautiful Chesire countryside of Oulton Park. I really love Oulton Park, and I hold the lap record there for the Ducati Tri Options class, but it is a hugely physical track on a 1000. The complex undulations for me feel like i'm riding a mechanical bull with my hands tied behind my back! My team worked tirelessly all weekend helping me tame the bike around there and we were able to manage so to an extent in short doses. My physical fitness was playing a part in still recovering from my injuries a few weeks prior. We qualified well in 8th poisiton. I got away well in race 1 and was holding my positoon for half of the race. I started to struggle a little and was unable to brake to the maximum pressure. I crossed the line in 15th. A tough blow but I had given it absolutely everything I had out there and rode to the best I could on the day. Sundays race I felt good also, but finished 16th this day, struggling with mroe or less the same problems as the day before. We had resonable pace, not far from the top 5 laptime wise, but we just weren't able to manage it over a race distance this weekend. However, we haven't got long to wait before we go again, as we are off to Donignton Park this weekend, for the penultimate round of the championship! This year has absolutely flown by, with all the rounds so close together, but we will continue giving it 100%!