About 5 minutes before our warm up started it started to spit with rain very slightly. Then 1 minute before the session started it was still spitting slightly but got no worse. 90% of the other riders had already left for the end of pit lane with full slicks on while we were still looking at the sky. My chassis mechanic said ‘No, we’ll change to wets’.
Sure enough as my mechanics were changing the wheels, it really started to come down hard. We missed a couple of minutes at the start of the session but it was well worth the change because the track was now properly wet. I had to run in new pistons for 4 laps and most of the other riders were in the box getting there wheels swapped.
I took it pretty steady because of the conditions but never had 1 moment at all which shows that the grip level is high. At the end of the session the circuit had standing water all over it and it was absolutely hammering it down with thunder as well. I finished warm up in 7th and had a very positive feeling in the conditions.
We still didn’t have the wet weather rear shock inside which is a lot softer and helps with a bit more grip. With the amount of rain that followed after our warm up we were 100% confident it was going to be a wet race.
Before the race I was pretty well fired up. I was sure we could get a very good result, somewhere around a top 5/6. I watched the 125 race from in our office building and the grip level looked unbelievable. If hardly anybody crashes in those conditions then you know you can push harder than you probably think you can.
I was quite nervous before the race, usually the better I qualify the more nervous I am. My start was good. I gained a couple of places off the line and on the entry to the first corner. Everybody seemed to drift wide, scared of putting the bike well on its side and it was only me and Casey who stayed on the inside and gained places from it.
