FPR rider Steve Martin gives Crash.net his very latest rider column coming off the back off his season's best result at the Italian circuit of Misano...
To say that I haven't been the easiest person to live with for the few weeks after
Silverstone is probably an understatement. So it was actually a bit of a relief to get a call from the FPR team a week after Silverstone to say that they had found that my frame was badly fatigued, which explained some of the problems, especially in the second race. But the only thing that was really going to put the doubts completely out of my mind was getting back on the bike again – and I just could wait to get to Misano.
We took the same settings to Misano and, after the first five laps, I knew that we were going to have a good weekend. Honestly I am amazed at how hard the guys in the team work. In the first session on Friday my bike stopped in the middle of the back straight and I had to run about 500 metres in 40 degree heat in my full gear to the marshal point so that I could get back to the pits for my second bike.
I made it back to the pits, jumped on the second bike which then stopped after about a lap and a half, knowing that I had left the other bike in the middle of nowhere. I thought that my session was over, so I didn't have to run this time. (You don't usually get your bike back until the end of a session.) I got back to the pits about 15 minutes later to find the guys warming up my number one bike out the front of the garage waiting for me to jump on it again!
Apparently one of the guys had run half the length of the circuit and pushed my bike back to the pits – now that's dedication for you especially in those temperatures. It's also a lesson to all those wannabe race mechanics – invest in a good pair of running shoes! (The actual problem was minor, with the solder on one of the cables melting from the extreme temperatures.)
