I soon forgot that I was starting the race weekend with the old engine after Friday free practice as I was pretty happy with the way things were going. I managed to put the FP1 on the top of the page, which was a great effort by the team. It was apparent to me, though, that it would be a hard weekend as, when I was on my own, I could cut fast laps but struggled with a little bit of speed in the traffic. The team was pretty happy when qualifying was over and both Gazza and myself were in Superpole. It's always hard to sit down for half an hour go out and do a one-off qualifying lap but that's what Superpole is all about and ‘man' was I happy when I saw 1min 33.3secs on my lap timer as I crossed the line. I know it was a good lap but when you finish less than .05secs off pole you can't help but be a bit peeved. Nevertheless, second on the grid was a great place to start from.
The first race didn't get off to the greatest start when I got swallowed up into turn one and then got bumped down the order a bit. I had to battle my way up through the field and had just passed Muggas when my primary drive gear let go, which meant I had no drive to the gearbox. In race two I started better and was in a dice with Chris Walker when the rain fell. In the restart everyone had the soft Pirelli wets on but they didn't feel too soft to me, as I didn't really have too much feel on the right hand side. Like most of the guys I had a huge high-side into turn one and the bike landed on me and ground me into the track. Luckily I haven't broken anything, but I have some ligament damage in my elbow and generally feel like I have been hit by a Mack truck.
Even though the team didn't get the results they deserved I think we all came away from the first second race feeling positive and looking forward to Valencia.
Steve
