In the next few laps, I put my head down again and made sure I was neat on the bike. I felt like I was doing low 1min 24s relatively easily, so I pushed harder and fully concentrated without thinking about what was going on behind me and who was about to lap me. On my 27th lap, I did a 1min 23.7secs, which was the fifth fastest lap that time around. I honestly think that, with a bit more strength, it wouldn’t be a problem for me to do those lap times lap in lap out. The 1min 23.7 came fairly happily and I didn’t feel like I was busting a gut to do it at all. It just shows what a difference makes with a good bike and good tyres.
I was getting more and more used to the bike with every lap I rode, and it showed in the race. I cruised the last few laps, more worried about getting in the way of other riders and was pretty relieved to see the flag. Everybody in Team Pramac D’Antin seemed very happy with my race. They could see I was improving every lap and I think that, in general over the weekend, I may have surprised them a bit. I was really happy with how the whole weekend went. One of the Ducati Engineers who works for the team told me that he will put my start in the manual of how to do starts, the funny thing is I have not done one god one on my R6 this year!
All in all, it was a fun/hectic few days. We were unlucky in Supersport, but at least showed good pace and will be ready for when we come back to Laguna for the last round of the AMA in September. Big thanks Barry, Mark and Cathal at Celtic Racing for all their help, driving a stupid amount of miles just to get to Laguna, then letting me ride a
MotoGP bike! Big thanks to team Pramac D’Antin and Ducati for giving me the opportunity and Mike Trimby for putting my name forward to the team. Also thank you to Yamaha, Dunlop,
Bridgestone, Alpinestars, Berik, Shoei and Mark Hamilton.
Now my girlfriend and I are going to spend a few days in San Francisco before going to New York and then to Ohio for the next round of the AMA. As yet, I’m not sure if
