Even so, I got swamped and to make it worse I got really boxed in by two riders coming over and 'sandwiching' me on the run down into the first corner. For the first lap the only person who I passed was Gobert who had also got a terrible start. After getting by him I was stuck behind some guy that I didn’t have a clue who it was. He was a bit of a braking demon on the entry but had no mid corner speed and not great exit speed but a fast bike. Basically a passing nightmare!! I think I was in about 12th place at that point and could see the leading group getting further away with every corner.
I made a bit of a risky, heat of the moment manoeuvre on this guy where I had both my front and rear protesting big time. I threw it into the corner in a bit of a two wheel drift underneath him, ran it a bit wide but managed to get him behind me so I could now focus on catching the group I should be with. I had a couple of seconds between myself and the guy in front so I was going for qualifying laps over the next laps to pull them back in. I was pretty gutted when I came over the line and saw a 1min 55.5 and realised that I wasn’t pulling them in one bit.
The next few laps were barely better and I was really struggling to get under a 1min 55. As the lap times weren’t coming at all I started pushing harder and harder, upsetting the front and costing myself a tenth here and there from trying too hard and also getting close to the point where I end up in the gravel. I managed one lap in the 54s at about mid race distance but that was it.
Towards the end of the race I started to gain on a guy called Chris Peris but was getting romped by him every time I wound on the gas on to each of the straights. Josh Hayes had an engine problem in the last few laps and because of it dropped back to just in front of me, but I was also unable to slipstream him. Heat really seemed to have affected my engine and I was unable to get myself any further up the field which meant I crossed the line in ninth.
