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2006 Australian Superbike
Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway July 9th, 2006 - By, Trevor Hedge |
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2006 Australian Superbike
Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway July 9th, 2006 - By, Trevor Hedge |
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Team Report - Shannon Johnson
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| Event: Round 4 Aust SBK
Championship Date: 7th-9th July Venue: Queensland Raceway Weather: Sunny and Warm Qualification: 6th Race Results: Race 1: 13th Race 2: 8th Overall Round: 1st: R Holland Honda CBR1000RR 2nd: J Stauffer Yamaha R1 3rd: A Fergusson Honda CBR1000RR 4th: R Budgen Suzuki GSXR 5th: A Stroud Suzuki GSXR 10th: Shannon Johnson Kawasaki ZX10R Rider Report: Well were do I start? The only known in the world of motorsport is expect the unknown and after the weekend I know this can't be truer. We did a test at the circuit a few weeks ago, but after only a short amount of laps the weather turned bad and the test was over before we had any chance to develop our bike further and find suitable settings for the race. To make matters worse I was suffering the affects of some food poisoning on Friday from dinner on Thursday night, needless to say riding the bike was not as much fun as normal. Still we worked through our planned schedule and did what we could. The Team worked well and we made big improvements over the course of the day. Saturday I was feeling much better, I spoke with the Team at great length regarding Friday's free practice sessions and we agreed with the direction we were going to take. I did spend most of both qualification sessions doing race simulations on our potential race tyres, we did however come across some big issues over the race distance. In the first race I must have been sleeping at the start as I completely missed it. I completed the first lap in about ninth or tenth place, I didn't want to waste time so I pushed forward and moved into fifth. I started to close the gap to fourth but as we thought would happen during the race, Did. I started experiencing problems in the rear of the bike, no longer able to race around I had to simply just ride as if I was going to buy milk from the shops just to finish. I'm glad I did choose to continue and finish the race though as the points maybe very important in the final tally at the end of the year. One thing I have learned over my years of racing is that "There is no point worrying about the things you can't change, try to improve what you can". I'm lucky to have a very great Team with a wealth of experience. And for the second race they put it all into practice. To try and help me complete the race we made some very big changes and we achieved our goal- finishing. I raced on a setting, tyre, combination I have not used before and with only one lap to try it out can't be to displeased with how it worked out, again a great Team. I did however make a rider error in the final lap, I miss counted the remaining laps and made a mistake. It was costly dropping me from fifth back to eighth, "I" won't let that happen again. Without going into all the nasty details of finger pointing and acting like a little brat I want to thank everyone involved, both with the team and directly with me personally. It made getting through such a tough weekend that little bit easier, some even got me to laugh at the situation. Also I must sound like a broken record but, the win's are not far away. The effort that both the Team and myself put in are far to great to not deserve and expect them, it just seems that the motorsport unknown it trying to test us. We will pass with a A+! We now have a large break over winter so some much needed time away will be good, I can also spend some time being just a normal Dad too. Regards Shannon |
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2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway |
