Ryan Dixon brings us up-to-date today with the opening weekend of the National Superstock 600 from Brands Hatch, ahead of this weekend’s rounds at Oulton Park.
The season finally kicked off over the Easter weekend on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. Arriving on Thursday afternoon, we got set up and settled in ready for our first British Superbike (BSB) meeting of 2014. We weren’t ideally situated in the paddock but it was what it was and we were at Brands Hatch, ready to go so no real complaints!
Friday came around and we had a ‘test session’ in the morning. I literally just used this to familiarise myself with the bike and the Brands Hatch Indy circuit as it was the first time I’d ever ridden it in the dry! I ran old tyres and just went out to have a ride around really. I was fairly pleased to know that I had managed a 50.3 second lap by the end of the session, almost 4 seconds faster than my previous personal best lap around there and close to my aim of a sub 50 second lap over the weekend, that was my aim before I went.
Friday afternoon I had my ‘free practice’ session. Again, using old tyres I just went out to check the set-up of the bike and push a little more, to make sure everything was prepared and ready for ‘qualifying 1’ on Saturday. Again, at the end of the session I was pleased to find I had again gone quicker with a 49.3 second lap time and I had already achieved my aim for the weekend, before it had really got underway. I was still confident there was more to come too and that I could go faster…
Saturday was a long day, with a lot of waiting around, only having one session all day. We had a new set of tyres fitted and the whole team were ready to roll. The weather was dry and I was looking forward to seeing what I could do! The time came and I set off down to pit lane, ready to see what I could do! With 25 minutes to post a time, I went out and did around 13 or 14 minutes, the track was very congested, with 42 riders out in our class on a sub 50 second lap, you can imagine it was quite busy.
I struggled to find a space to get a clear lap in and eventually pulled into the pits for a breather and to wait for the track to clear a little. I went back out with about 12 minutes to go and really began to push, I was getting faster and faster but then with around 4 minutes to go and pushing harder still, as I exited Graham Hill Bend, I wound the throttle on a little too early and a little too hard, the rear wheel broke traction, I then shut off and in doing so high sided and came crashing to the ground, ending my session prematurely and ruining my leathers at the same time. I ripped a hole in the back of them which resulted in a nice friction burn on my left hip.
Still, after all the shenanigans, I was very happy to find that I had posted a time of 48.7 seconds, again improving from the previous session. The times were so tight that despite being only 1.2 seconds off of the pole position lap time and just 0.9 from second place, I found myself provisionally 23rd on the grid.
Sunday brought ‘qualifying 2’ and not only that but it brought some terrible weather conditions which meant that nobody would improve on lap times so the times from qualifying 1 on Saturday would form the grid for the race, meaning I was confirmed as 23rd on the grid for what promised to be a very close race with under a second covering over 20 riders! I still participated in ‘qualifying 2’ to get some wet weather time on the bike.
Many of the other riders didn’t go out and so it was easier to get into a rhythm and see what I could do. I was very happy with how I went in the wet, not being overtaken all session and passing several riders during the session. I was surprised how slow some of the other riders were in the tricky conditions! I ended the session 10th fastest!
Finally, Monday came around and at 2.15PM it was time for the first race of the season, I was pretty nervous in the build up to it but also very much looking forward to it too. However, what was about to happen wasn’t exactly in the script…after completing the sighting lap and then the two warm up laps, we formed up on the grid. I got a blinding start off the line and then made up a few positions going around the outside at Paddock Hill bend, then as we approached Druids all of the riders headed to the inside and it all got a bit congested.
I however, decided I was going to move around the outside of the pack and did so, again making up several places on the way into the corner. As we were half way around the corner, I saw the rider on the inside of me sit up, anticipating something may happen, I tried to accelerate away from what could have been a problem, but, alas it wasn’t enough. The two riders on my inside collided, both going down and as they and their machines slid across the track, the caught my rear wheel, picking it up off of the ground and then as it came back into contact with the tarmac the bike shot forwards, we parted company, I was flung completely off of the track and the bike took a hard crash into the tarmac.
Thankfully I was ok and able to walk away. The bike wasn’t too badly damaged but had broken most of the second fairing set that we had fitted so that was two fairing sets destroyed in the opening weekend. Not an ideal start to the 2014 season at all but the positives I can take were that my pace was fast, faster than I aimed for before the weekend and I wasn’t far off the pace either. I felt I had a good set up and that my race pace was good as I was able to consistently post fast lap times. I was confident I could move into the points during the race and secure a top 15 finish but obviously I never got that far to find out. After seeing photos of the accident and a video, I think I was already up to around 16th by the second corner so it was heading in the right direction!
Anyway, we are all prepared and ready for round 2 at Oulton Park in Cheshire at the weekend and we’ll move forward hopefully with a better result in the next race report!