It’s very technical but it seems to do a good job. Saturday night was a bit uncomfortable as my groin and all around the top of my legs was just getting tighter and tighter and sorer. I couldn’t bear my own weight with my legs. If I tried to lift them up which was a bit of a problem.
On Sunday morning I was tight and sore. Dean gave me some pain killers which I had with breakfast and took the edge off just before warm up. As everybody now knows, it was wet, very wet!
I had to run in the bike which only really gave me 2 laps at the end of the session to get a feel for the track. It was pretty slick, every lap down Hollywood and up around Starky’s the bike was twitching and spinning.
After the session we agreed that the rear spring was too hard and put a slightly softer one on ready for the race. It looked like it might stay dry for our race but as Bautista found out in the 125s it started to drizzle and properly rain in their race which guaranteed us a wet race.
I had another pain killer before the race. On the bike I didn’t feel too bad, a bit sore but nothing major. The most painful part was getting on the bike and having to lift and stretch my leg over the seat.
My start was not so bad - I made up 5 places in the first lap - and by lap 2 I was 12th and in a group with Corsi, Ballerini, Baldolini, Barbera and Lorenzo. Corsi broke away from our group and we were together for quite a while. I was losing a good 8 tenths/1 second coming out of the Melbourne Loop with the same problems as we had on Saturday so I was having to slip the clutch a bit.
After 10 laps Barbera and Lorenzo seemed to find a bit of pace and pulled away from me. My bike was better than in the morning warm-up, but still a bit hard on the rear and snapping a bit around starkys. I was quite comfortable in 11th and Ballerini started coming closer and I was in two minds whether to push hard to catch him or just settle for 11th.
