Friday: practice and qualifying
Since we only get one day (Thursday of the weekend) to prep our bike in between rounds, we found and fixed a few important issues that we discovered were affecting our forks since we received the bike. In Friday practice I ran a time of 1:46.0 where the fastest time of the session was a 1:40.9 putting me in 22nd. This was almost exactly my best time at this track the month before at the official series test; it was great to start off where we left off learning the track. In Superpole I ran a time of 1:45.0 where the fastest time of the session was a 1:40.5 putting me 21st on the grid for the races. I was feeling better and better each lap but never really had that carrot to chase and had a lonely qualifying session. I caught a massive headshake coming out of the final turn on the track over the rumple strips on the final lap but saved it and finished clean. I don’t use brakes into turn one, so unfortunately in the hard braking zone of turn two, I found out that I had no front brakes with the lever coming straight back to the bar as the shake had rattled the pads apart. On my 3rd front brake grab while grabbing downshifts to try to make the turn, they pumped back up and grabbed hard putting me down. Lesson learned. My leathers and helmet had major damage, but I was perfectly healthy and my bike only had damage on one side. After getting dropped off at the Worldwcr tent by scooter, I had to sprint across the entire paddock to tech to get weighed as not to get disqualified and made it just in time. We were starting 21st for the races.
Saturday: race 1
Saturday warm up went well just working a bit more on a few key corners for the 10 minutes we are allotted. For the race, I was on the inside diving into turn 1 and was shuffled back. I fought back to the front of the back group I was in and began pulling away from them. Unfortunately the group in front of me had gotten out of reach while I was getting to the front of this group and I had a lonely rest of the race maintaining my position and pushing for faster lap times. I finished in 19th position running a 1:44.5 where the fastest time of the race was a 1:40.5. I was happy with the set up of the bike and felt like I was getting more comfortable to continue pushing.
Sunday: race 2
Sunday morning we tried changing the front of the bike to get a little bit better feel. Unfortunately, it was the same story again, and though I got a better dive into turn 1, I had to battle to the front of the group I ended up in and lost the next group. Until I can latch onto this next group from the start of the race I will struggle to make up time and positions. The draft on these small bikes can make such a difference in lap time. I finished only 1:04 minutes behind the leader in 21st position after 12 laps.
On Monday after the race weekend, I took a flight to Magny Cours France for a two-day test to learn the track for our race there in September. Then on Thursday took a detour through Le Mans to see the museum, town, and track before getting on another flight Friday to England for a test at Donington Park to learn for our next race there in July. Having a day or two on these tracks before the race weekend will make a huge difference getting up to speed, and I am doing all I can to gather as much information and experience as possible during my rookie year. One step at a time.
