On race tyres this was worth over 1.2 seconds a lap and now I can honestly say that my bike is handling awesomely. After the disappointment of Assen, we really worked hard on making sure the set-up was suited to worn tyres and that my race pace would be consistent. Come Sunday, for the first time of riding the FP1, I actually felt that it wouldn't be a matter of riding my arse off just to score points, but just a matter of how many points I could bag.
Of course racing is racing and race one didn't go to plan. I knew I had a problem when, in the first few laps, I was going nearly four seconds slower than I had been going all weekend. I pitted and the team put a new rear tyre in – there had been a problem with the pressure in the initial tyre - and I was able to go back out and do the race pace that I should have been doing from the start. Race two went to plan and in the last third of the race I was lapping quicker than at least four guys in front.
I managed to catch Abe and Neukirchner battling for seventh but I couldn't find a way past. And when I saw Abe's move on Neukircher I had recollections of Brands and figured that seventh might be mine anyway. Ninth isn't a bad result but I am confident there is more to come.
After all the struggles we have had as a team this season, I am confident the hard work that we have done will really start to pay off and for this reason I am happy to confirm that I have resigned with Foggy PETRONAS Racing for the 2006 World Superbike season. Carl knows what it takes to win, and whilst there is little that we can do about the capacity of the bike, the team is the most professional that I have worked with in Europe and I am confident that with the team and people employed on the FP1 project, we are going to reach 110 per cent of the bike's potential in 2006.
Check out the rest of Steve Martin's columns in the Steve Martin column section of the World Superbike section of Crash.net.
