Thruxton - Round 6, 2016

We finally had a dry weekend at round 6 of the British Superbike Championship at Thruxton. It is the fastest average speed track on the UK calendar and a real heart in mouth track with some amazingly fast turns! We have been struggling severely with mid range power all year, so we had to look at options to tackle that around this circuit.

Friday we had two practice sessions and we were able to work through quite a few things in these laps. We found a good gearing setting, which meant the bike was revving really hard, to try and stay clear of the lack of power lower down in the revs. Saturdays qualifier saw me in 20th position, to start race 1 with. I got a great start in the race and had a good battle with a group of 5 riders for 15th. I came out second in this group, to finish 16th. I was able to finish in front of Factory MV World Supersport rider Lorenzo Zanetti, and Moto3 World Championship rider, Danny Webb.

We found some good improvements for race 2 and I was starting a few positions up from race 1, starting in 17th position. My pace we better in race 2, improving my best lap by over half a second. There was a big bunch of us battling and changing positions regularly, which meant we dropped behind a few riders I feel we could have stuck with. The surface at Thruxton is extremely abrasive, and mainly fast right hand corners. This causes the right hand side of the tire to degrade really quickly. We managed to worked hard in our practice sessions to have a comfortable set up when the tires went off, and I was still able to fight strong at the end of the race. Although the slipstream cost me a position on the last lap, we still came home with 14th position. I am was really pleased with this result, as I had to work hard for it, but felt I rode a really strong race. The budget and package we have been faced with this year has been extremely difficult, to come away with a strong race and point scoring finishes, in front of some competitive world championship riders, shows my strength and the hard work that the team has put in.

I'd like to thank my team and all my sponsors and supporters who assist with my racing. I'll have an update out in the next week, explaining our current situation and direction being taken.

Cheers, Levi #57