A disappointing weekend - Round 2 (Thruxton)

Thruxton really didn’t go according to plan with Friday’s free practice being very windy. I struggled to find a good setup and was very frustrated as normally we are very competitive here.
Then it rained all day Saturday. Free Practice 3 went okay and I was confident I could improve in the wet. We made some changes for qualifying which helped us go faster but we did not improve in place so I was on the back row of the grid.
I wasn’t very happy about it, but was confident that, if it was dry the next day, I would be able to work my way through the field. Sunday came and thankfully it was dry – in the first race I got a good start and pushed hard from the off.
The bike felt good but after a few laps I wasn’t able to hold a line and was suffering from real bad chatter from the rear. We ended up fifth in the Cup, which was very disappointing.
Race two was red-flagged and for the restart we put a softer tyre in and made some suspension changes. I fluffed the start and really struggled to go any faster – the changes we made didn’t help and the softer tyre only made the chatter worse. We ended up fifth again in the Cup.
It was a very disappointing weekend for the team, especially after we were fastest at Brands two weeks earlier. I can’t wait to get to Oulton Park this weekend – we have found a few things wrong with the bike and have sorted everything out, so I just need to get on with the job.

James #56