I told myself that if I could get below a 1min 41.0secs I would be happy with it for a first day out. I did a 1min 40.3secs which I was very happy with but had a good chunk of time to gain if I wanted to get right on the pace, which was around a high 1min 37secs low 1min 38secs. The bike wasn’t feeling anywhere near setup as the circuit is like none other that we have been to so we just had to try and work at that as best as possible to put us in good stead come Sunday.
Friday was a pretty productive day. We made good progress with bike setup and I was starting to get into a better rhythm with each lap I did. I’ve found that with all the AMA tracks that I’ve been to this year, it has always been Saturday before I really feel like I know that track properly and then finding a rhythm comes much more easily. I think I must do laps in my sleep because I am always faster right from the off on Saturdays!
As usual, I had FX qualifying last thing on Friday. We were constantly chasing the chassis, trying to iron out some of the problems I was having at certain, really technical points of the track. I qualified in sixth which I wasn’t best pleased with but at the same time I wasn’t disappointed with it either. I knew come Saturday, I would be much faster without changing anything and I thought we still had plenty to gain with the bikes setup. It was definitely proving to be the most difficult place to set the bike up that I have been to (in America) so far.
