After scoring his first ever world championships points with 12th at his home British Grand Prix, 15-year-old Repsol Honda rider Bradley Smith repeated the feat at the following German Grand Prix - and this is how he did it...
Monday after Donington and my first points score, and I'm back at school and into the real life…it was a complete change over from the day before, but good to get back to reality. Some of the guys at school knew that I'd scored my first world championship points at Donington, whereas some obviously didn't. But the surprising thing was that some people whom I thought weren't bothered in actual fact had taken an interest, so that was flattering. My GCSEs are taking place next Spring / Summer so I'm going to end up doing the odd exam at some tracks such as Chaz Davies had to do a few years back, but for the time being I'm cramming in a great deal in order to keep up.
The weekend off was great as I got onto a motocross bike again. We've had this Honda 450 CRF sitting in the garage at home since the start of the season. Brand spanking new and never used! A friend popped around and we prepped it up to be ready to ride by Saturday at the local track. Just myself getting back in tune with the off road thing really, not getting caught up in racing or quick laps, just trying different things again in the sport I used to do. My back was hurting a little come the end of it all through the impact of the bumps, but it was good to get back on it.
Going to Germany and the Sachsenring was another new track for me, but the first thing I had to overcome was the sheer temperature of the place. Thursday was so hot - it almost felt as if it was hotter than Qatar - and then I couldn't believe there was no air con in the hotel room! The weekend off at home saw hot weather in the UK with 29 degrees being the norm, but it was much more humid in Germany and that's what was uncomfortable. Oh well…Dani Pedrosa was in the same place so at least it was all the same for us!
Fortunately come Friday it was much cooler. The day actually started off with a short rain shower so that was a great help to take the heat out of the place. Anyway… out on track and the first job was to find a racing line around the Sachsenring. The team had really drummed into me that it was very important to find the best thread. I thought they were going on a bit at first, but even after a few laps I understood what they were getting at.
The second sector was a really hard part to crack with the long series of five right handers after the Omega Curve. Not easy... Of course the quick right hander at the top of the hill was great to ride, but I felt it was not as great as Turkey because there you had some positive loading on the suspension whereas at the Sachsenring you were actually going over the top of a hill. Slipstreaming people through there was good fun though! Friday afternoon was another building, learning session but it left me a little puzzled as I just could not work out how some people were passing me and just disappearing. Very frustrating... but in the end I was not far off Krummenacher and Laesser who really know their way around here from the German Championship races they've done.
Saturday was much better as I really found my feet after we changed the bike a bit. I also found that hanging back and then chasing down riders, using them as a target, was a really good way of getting into the track and getting the times down. Good target practice that. In final qualifying I set a good time but slowed up a little which was a mistake as the core temperature of the tyre just went and I couldn't get it back. 14th was certainly not bad though and we were happy to be less than 0.1secs off Thomas Luthi, the reigning world champion.
Race day brought great weather with perfect clear skies, but surprisingly cool and refreshing in the shadows. Thank goodness the humidity had not returned from Thursday… We were the third warm up as the 125s were again the last race of the day, but that was again good as watching the other races on the box gave me a chance to see where people were passing, falling or whatever.
But when the lights going green, it all went wrong as I plummeted from 14th to 27th by the exit of turn one. Arrgh! I had not done any practice starts all weekend as I'd plainly forgotten to do them on the in laps and that was my fault and no-one else's... and now it was biting me back. Nonetheless I just got on with the job and cut through them. Any gap, and little chance, any opening and there was an orange and blue bike in the hole. And it was mine. Get out of the way... all of you... I now have discovered there are more passing places on a 125 around Sachsenring than you'd imagine!
