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I've done it! I've raced in the 250 Grand Prix World Championship. So I guess you want to know what I thought of it? Well.....

...Friday practice shocked everyone with the strength of the wind, it put me off a little also and I was quite disappointed with the time that I clocked.  I have to say that I didn't feel myself on Friday, I think the nervousness of the upcoming weekend got to me a little.

On Saturday the wind was blowing in the exact opposite direction to Friday which meant there were many areas that required a different line to counteract the wind. In the morning free practice I went out and immediately noticed a chatter problem on the front. I tried to ride around it but a few laps in I crashed at MG after losing the front. There was no damage although I jarred my right shoulder which I dislocated earlier in the year.

After checking the bike over I went back out and persisted with the chatter problem, as nothing I did would fix it. I did not improve my time from Friday. After the session I realised that the only thing different on the bike from Friday was a wider width front rim. In testing I had not been able to identify a difference between the rim sizes and so I did not have a preference. I now know the difference!   All this while we had been battling some very bad rear tyre wear. I had yet to find a setup that would make a tyre last more than 5 laps before shredding.

So the objective for final qualifying was to spend some time out there and make a good time, try some different tyre compounds and suspension settings in the hope of improving tyre longevity.

On lap two of final qualifying I did a 1m39.5 , under qualifying cutoff, pfheww! That was a relief, now the real work could begin.

By the end of the 45 minute qualifying I had managed a best of 1m38.5,  this was still slower than I had been leading up to the GP, however considering the conditions, I thought it was OK.  This put me last on the grid in 25th position, 0.4 secs behind the next placed rider.  I was the only wildcard to qualify in the 250's.

Unfortunately we still had not fixed the tyre wear problem and neither Ohlins or Dunlop could (or maybe would) help us.  We were now realising that this problem with excessive tyre wear was going to put me behind the eight-ball from the beginning of the race. We would have just one more chance to find a solution and that would be Sunday morning warm up.

I woke up on Sunday morning to discover it was raining, I do not have a good history in wet weather so this was not a good development for me.  On Saturday we tried harder suspension settings on the rear, so for Sunday warm up we would try some softer settings, I also needed to run the bike in during this session.

125cc warm-up was dry but the moment the session finished the rain came in a swift and foul swoop just enough to completely wet the track.  When the 250 session started the track was about three quarters wet, so we avoided going out at the beginning because we knew that it would soon be dry.

About five minutes into the session I went out to run the bike in. It takes five laps to run a new engine in, yet on my third lap I went to the top of the leader board, then again the next lap, it would be short lived as next time around I had lost the lead. Still, a high point in the weekend for us. I only got one lap at full speed before the session finished, however, the tyre was completely shredded.

It was now crunch time, we had to decide which compound and what suspension settings would work best for the race. We decided on the set-up we had used the week before in a test day, this meant the softest tyre and a rear spring slightly harder than that used in morning warm-up. This had at best given us 5five or six laps before shredding but what else could we do?

It seemed like a long wait between warm-up and the race but I tried to keep myself occupied to keep the nerves at bay.  I watched the start of the 125 race before heading to the pit to get ready.

The weather was fine as we headed out on our sighting lap, after a brief time on the grid being introduced to the crowd we started our warm-up lap. My practice start went well and everything seemed fine.

Unfortunately my race start did not go so well. Despite this I made up a few places over the next two laps and it seemed as though I could continue to do so but by lap four the rot had set in as the rear tyre began to shred and I quickly lost the tow of the faster bikes.

 I knew what the problem was but I did not want to pull in and be added to the list of wildcards who have not finished the GP. The first 15 laps took forever and I hoped one of the seagulls would fly in and put me out of my misery, however, the last ten seemed to go by in a flash.

Until lap 18 I had been second last, but next lap around, the guy behind me pulled in to the pits simply to avoid the embarrassment of being lapped and coming last. With four laps to go I was passed by the leaders which spurred me on a little until I crossed the line to finish my first ever World Championship race.

I had mixed feelings, but mostly, I was happy. Coming into the weekend I knew it would be hard. Even the next slowest bike was 10kmh faster than ours and looking at that tyre after the race showed that it had virtually disintegrated.

My team was happy for me and I appreciate this because you can not succeed at this sport without a lot of support, so a big thanks to everyone who was cheering me on and supporting me throughout this year and the Grand Prix Weekend.

Regards,
Russell Holland