On Sunday morning the skies looked grey but I’d been told that it would stay dry. I ran in pistons during warm up and got a feeling for the bike with a full tank and it felt like it was a bit too soft on the front in the hard braking areas. We added a bit more preload which helped this and now my only slight concern for the race was how my rear would last and whether the setup was right for a race distance.
My start was so-so and like last year, I stayed right on the inside of the long first corner which is definitely the way to go. I gained a few places from my positioning on the track but then in the second corner I lost a couple because there was a bit of bumping and barging directly in front of me that I had to avoid. As the race got settled over the first couple of laps I was feeling pretty good on the back of a big group of about 6 riders with a couple of the semi-factory bikes in there as well. I was in 15th and hanging on OK for about the first 5 laps and then started getting a more and more loose feeling on the rear every lap.
Also the temperature had been the warmest that it had been all weekend which meant that I got even less laps out of the tyre than what I had in qualifying. I started to drop back quite quickly and eventually got caught and passed by Baldolini and Heidolf which put me back in 17th. I tried to hang onto both of them but I couldn’t get anywhere near them on drive coming off the important corners, like coming onto the back straight. I couldn’t get the power to the ground and was losing all my time in that area. I finished the race in 17th but felt it was as much as I could do.
