For the afternoon we put the harder front tyre in which I preferred. I started off pretty quick and did a 1min 34.0secs in 5 laps. Before the end of the session I was hoping to do a mid to low 1min 33secs, which should have been good enough for the first 3 rows. The engine was still the same as the morning which was a bit frustrating as 2 tenths is important at
Donington.
With 15 minutes to go I had a new rear tyre ready for a first flying lap, the lap was ok but not perfect, on course for about a 1min 33.7secs. I exited the Melbourne as best as possible and was still having to ride very much 125 style, to keep the rpm high, and make up for the dull bottom end power of the engine and it spat me over the top. I landed hard on my hip which was hurting bad.
I was pretty annoyed after the session, not just because I crashed but the way in which I crashed because I was having to ride differently to make up for the lack of grunt. I don’t like making excuses - and of course the crash was my fault - but it could have been prevented had the engine been a bit crisper off the bottom.
I had two out-of-the-seat warnings in the morning session at the Melbourne Loop and it was inevitable that a crash was going to happen. A lower first gear would have helped, but then it would have been too low for the final corner. The engine was OK on Friday but it seemed to change on Saturday with the weather and my mechanic couldn’t get it back to how it felt in first qualifying.
The hour after the session I started to seize up. Not only did I land hard on my hip but it seemed to shunt my pelvis and especially the inside of my legs. Just as the back was coming good the torso area felt like it has been whacked from each side with a sledge hammer and then I’d been made to do the splits!
Dean was back round after the session and helping out with the new problem, he has a really trick machine which baffles me the way it works but it measures skin impedance and gets the brain to send a neurological message to the area that hurts and then the body works to fix that area.
