In his latest exclusive column for Crash.net, British Superbike star rookie Cal Crutchlow reflects on how it felt to sign off his Rizla Suzuki career in victorious style – and gives his thoughts on moving to the championship-winning team in 2008...
My debut year in British Superbikes has been a tough one, but I tried my hardest throughout and it has definitely made me a good, strong rider. Earlier on when I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get the Superbike round the track it was certainly hard work – both on and away from the circuit – and there were a lot of stressful times analysing things and trying to make it all work, but we kept just plugging away.
It wasn’t necessarily about learning to ride a bike again – a motorbike is a motorbike at the end of the day, and whether it’s 1,000cc or 125cc I know how to ride one. You just have to make sure everything is in place. What it’s all about is adapting to being able to change everything on the bike, working with the extra horsepower and slick tyres – there’s so much you can do with Superbikes now compared to what you used to be able to do on a 600cc.
Over the year it’s been good, though, and the second half has been extremely good. My side of the garage put such a lot of effort into getting the bike to where it was at the end of the year. We found something mid-season that just clicked, and literally I wasn’t outside the top six from then on.
I was pleased with the last couple of rounds especially. I was absolutely desperate to score a podium by the time we got to
Brands Hatch, and back at the start of the year I had said I would be happy with a top six finish! Then consistently over the second half of the year I was in the top four or five, and at Brands I worked my hardest – there’s no doubt about that – and made that podium mine.
![British Superbike star Cal Crutchlow on his way to victory on his final appearance for Rizla Suzuki in Mallory Park's Race of the Year in 2007 [pic credit: Neil Gilbert]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/393620.jpg)
