Saturday started on the right foot with Supersport practice. I finished the session in sixth overall with a 1min 38.969secs but made good progress with myself finding some of the tricks of the track and knew that I have plenty left in the bag. Next up was FX practice/warm up for the race later in the day. I finished the session in fifth. My problem was, with not just the FX bike but with both bikes I was finding I could go fast for a few laps but seemed to be using rear tyres a bit too quickly and then my pace would drop off. It wasn’t a tyre issue but more to do with suspension and like I said, I was really difficult to find an optimal setting.
The setting we ended up with was mostly a compromise to suit the fast stuff, the slow stuff, the bumpy stuff and the not so bumpy stuff! Nowhere was perfect but I think most people were in the same boat. Another problem that was costing me a bit of time was something that has been hindering us for most of the year which was excessive 'backing in'. We played around with the clutch but ran out of time to really go through different settings to find out what worked and what didn’t.
Supersport qualifying went well. I started the session by trying to do some consistent times on what I wanted to use as race tyres. That went OK but still lost confidence in the bike after a few laps when the grip went away. We had no qualifying tyres so for the last 5 minutes to threw in our softest race tyre. When I went back out most people had already done their qualifying lap and I was pushed all the way down to ninth, I had to make the lap count - no pressure! I put together a very good lap although I made a mistake which cost me a couple of tenths in the fast 'Esses'. Even so, it was a 1min 37.852secs which put me second on the grid which I was really happy with, along with the team.
