Round three of the Bridgestone British Championship saw us head to Hawkstone for the weekend . As always, the track proved to be one of the toughest in the UK, and attracted full gates across all the groups which is great to see.
I qualified 22nd but the 10 places in front of me were covered by less than 5 seconds and I felt that I could improve in the race. My focus was on trying to minimize mistakes as this track can really catch you out but my main problem over the weekend was trying to get out of the gate well on the concrete start.
Race 1 – start was probably the best of the weekend but then a rider went down in front of me which cost me few places. Worked my way through and felt my riding was getting stronger as the race went on eventually finishing 20th.
Race 2 – didn’t get a great start which gave me some work to do, not as easy in this group as so many riders are running lap times similar to one another. I kept making time up but then made mistakes undoing the good work which was frustrating finishing 23rd.
Race 3 – got a start in the the top 15 but lost the front on the first lap tangling with another rider who ended up on top of me leaving me dead last. I felt I then rode pretty well making up 11 places to finish 25th.
Race 4 – worst start of the weekend lighting up the rear tyre on the concrete start. My riding got stronger as the race went on, finishing 20th but closing quickly on the four in front of me, just needed another 2 or 3 laps as my fitness was really good and felt strong at the end of the race.
Overall, finished 22nd, although fairly happy with this in a strong field, I felt that if I could have got a bit of better start in each race I could have finished a few places higher. Really pleased with my fitness as felt strong at the end of the races and could have done another 10 minutes, testament to the structure of the training plan with Coach Robb.
It was also good to catch up with Matt from Motoverde who was back from the USA for a couple of weeks, re-stocking on the Bike Wash and Snow Foam (well my dad did!). Also tried out the new Motoverde Glue And Tar remover which proved to be brilliant for removing all those black marks from the graphics, I even did it myself!! Thanks to NoraCRS, all the sponsors, VIP Motocross for the best practice track and EBC Brakes for the ongoing support.
