GP27 – BSB MOTORSTAR – RND 2

Wow, I feel like I have only just closed my eyes on the eve of round one and here we are already at Brands Hatch for round 2 of the BSB Motorstar Championship.

People often ask, when they see me in and around the paddock, what advice do you have for anyone wanting to progress to this level of the sport? My answer, after recent experience, would be: always take a puncture repair kit with you when undertaking endurance cycling training!

FP 1 arrives Friday morning and due to the far higher track temperature and the track being “dirty” from the previous weekend’s truck racing, it is soon apparent that our settings form testing here earlier in the season are some way off. Back to the drawing board with Ryan and the RS team to find a base to work from.

FP 2 and with some changes to the bike to try we left pit lane in anticipation. The changes have made the bike feel far more stable mid corner, but it is still not giving me the confidence to get on the power as hard as I’d like. We also changed the tyre from FP 1 to a hard compound, I thought the settings we have just dialed in and tested would match the characteristics of the soft tyre, but not knowing how they would respond to a new hard compound tyre, we decide to run a hard compound tyre in Q1.

Q1 and the bike feels much better with our adapted base setting coupled with a new hard compound rear tyre, but I still feel the soft gave me more corner exit confidence on full throttle. I’m starting to put together some consistent laps and the lap times begin to drop; however, an old wrist injury begins to niggle and progress for the session is prematurely concluded.

It’s time for Q2 and now is the time to put together a complete flying lap. No need to be out all session, we know the settings work and the rest is up to me. Immediately, I can feel the soft rear tyre is a perfect match for our setting and my confidence grows posting a time 0.2 seconds under yesterday’s best. With 4^th to 18^th covered by a second, tomorrow’s first race could be an extremely close one around this tight Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

Race one is here and filled with excitement ready for this 15 lapper, the bike is wheeled onto the starter. The starter fires into life and the back wheel spins clutch out and BANG! The motor seizes and race one is over before it has begun! The team work tirelessly throughout the early evening to replace the motor and get the bike ready for race 2, tomorrow afternoon. With everything tested and “run-in”, we are ready for race 2.

The race is delayed to 1715, due to an awful incident in the SSTK 600 race – thoughts go to all involved and I wish a speedy recovery to the 2 downed riders. I line up on the back row of the grid, dead last, because I did not complete a lap during race 1. Full of adrenaline, fuelled by the disappointment of missing race one and the anger of having to start from the back row, I take my place at the conclusion of the sighting laps. The lights go out and I make one of the best starts I think I’ve ever made. Starting 32^nd, I’m up to 15^th as we leave the first turn. A frantic first lap ensues and I complete lap 1 up in 14^th place. A few laps of settling in and I’ve closed up on the next group, 14^th, 13^th a faller = 12^th another couple of laps and I’m up to 11^th. I have a gap of a second behind and of 1.7 seconds in front, time to get my head down and use the clear track to close the gap, another faller sees me up into the top 10 and I’m with the group in front. It takes a couple of laps to pass the 3 in front placing me 8^th, but 4.7 seconds back on the battle for forth. I settle for 8^th and manage the gap, using my pit board. I cross the line 8^th and elated after my back row start.