Broc Parkes drops us a line to report on Misano

Qualifying - I seemed to be up there as either the quickest or at least in the top couple of riders for most of the qualifying sessions. In first qualifying I was fastest until Chris (Vermeulen) stuck in a real sticky tyre.

In the Saturday qualifying I was pretty confident that I could stick it onto the front row and may well have done had we not experienced some technical difficulties with the front. Still, I was reasonably happy with being on the second row as I knew that I could run consistent times on the the race tyres.

We thought that Saturday was hot, until we saw the track temperature on Sunday. We tried a couple of tyres in the morning practice and were pretty confident that we knew what we needed to run in the race.

My start was not one of my best, but It was certainly interesting with Karl (Muggeridge) trying to push his way through. I think I finished the first lap in 5th and sitting behind Sanna. That Number 16 Yamaha held me up for a while as I watched the guys at the front pull away. So it came as a bit of a surprise to see Sanna wave me through down the back straight. Not that I was going to complain! I have to admit that it was with mixed feelings that I saw Chris was down. I don't like to see one of the guy's fall, but it did mean that I had one less bike to try and get past.

Once past Sanna, I set off after the front guys, concentrating real hard on catching Van der Goorbergh only to see him pull up just as I was about to latch on to his rear end. With just Fujiwara in front of me and Foret closing in on the pair of us, I got past Fujiwara as quickly as I could and tried to pull out a gap. A couple of times the front tried to tuck under and the rear let go, so I had to be a little careful about pushing too hard.
When I saw that Foret was right on me and then got past, I thought that I could possibly stay with him, however after my non finish at Silverstone, I decided that I wanted the podium finish rather than a crash story to tell, so even when Fujiwara got past, with the tyres going off, I was happy to settle for third.

Some might say that if I could stay with Foret, that I should have done. Maybe they are right and maybe If I'd tried, the front would have tucked under. As it turns out, we probably should have gone for a slightly harder tyre as both Fujiwara and Foret had done, but that's racing. For the Team, the Sponsors and Myself, the podium finish was important and I'm delighted to finally get to sample the podium at World Championship level. Next time I intend to be up a step or two!

Finally I would like to thank the Team and all the Sponsors for helping me get on that podium. I would also like to thank the many messages I have got from everybody congratulating me on the ride. It means a lot to me. The podium this week had extra importance as I had my Parents here with me from Australia and no one has been behind me as much as they have. I've got a big break now as the Supersports don't go to Laguna Seca, so I will be using the time to work hard on my fitness to ensure that I put on a good show at Brands Hatch.

Broc.