I should have had three races since I last wrote a column but unfortunately Rockingham was cancelled due to track lines being painted with the wrong paint!! The paint they used was too slippery and a few lads including Deano Thomas lost the front in a straight line under brakes so the track workers had to strip the crappy paint off and re-paint it all over again with the proper paint. By the time they fixed all this they didn't have time to run all the classes so the 125GP and Superstock classes got the ass.

Two weeks before that I raced a Brands Hatch for round 6 of the British Superstock Championships. Things didn't go too bad for me, I qualified in 12th spot for the race despite my Yamaha R1 having fuel injection dramas which made the old girl down 8 horses on what it usually is.

Sunday race day started off wet and as we were second race of the day the track was still a little wet but drying so I opted for a wet front tire and a dry rear. As the lights went out I got away ok off the line until turn one! One lad decided to sit her up mid-corner and plow into me forcing me to take to the gravel. Luckily I kept it upright but when I re-joined the track I was dead last so I had some work ahead of me!! As the race continued the track was just about full dry and I had a full wet front tire and it was really starting to slide. With three laps to go I was up into 9th position and someone was gaining fast behind as I was losing the front at every corner with my wet front tyre. As I started the last lap I was taking real defensive lines to hold my 9th but it didn't work. The other rider, in chase, chose a full dry tire combination so he passed me and I cruised the Yamaha R1 home to 10th position. I was happy with that result considering my first lap dramas!!

My next race was at Oulton Park recently for round 7. I qualified 12th for the race and I was only 1 second off pole. The pole time was done on a qualifying tyre so all I needed was a good start to get away with the front lads. As normal I stuffed my start up and was involved in an elbow bashing session at turn one of the race but I got out of that ok and was 17th out of turn 3 on the first lap.

I saw red after that episode at turn one so I made some pretty good close moves to get through the field. By lap 3 I was up into 11th and had a few Suzuki's in front. I find it hard to make a nice pass on the Suzuki's as they make such a gap out the corners from my R1 so when I do pass them they don't see me until the apex of the corner which often results in a rather hard body slam!! By lap 10 of 15 I managed to bash passed the riders directly in front and found myself in 7th position. The group ahead where a fair bit in front so I just kept a good gap to the rider behind to end up 7th over the line.

My team and I where extremely happy with the weekend as I am now 10th in the Championship and first non Suzuki in what's known as the Suzuki cup!!

My next round is at Cadwell Park this weekend so I will let you know how I get on there..

Cheers,
Dave.