In the first of what will be a regular Crash.net column by new Foggy Petronas Racing rider Craig Jones, the young Brit reviews his 'eventful' first three races as a World Superbike rider...
Maybe I took it a bit literally when I was asked to write a new 'Crash column' at the start of the season! Okay, so the first couple of rounds didn't quite go to plan but I am in World Superbikes to learn and I guess I learnt some painful lessons at Qatar and Phillip Island. The positive thing is that I know why I was crashing and it was probably in some part from tying too hard. But it has not affected my confidence and that's the main thing.
We left the Phillip Island test in January having missed one day of the proposed four because it was far too windy to ride. I did three laps on that day and was blown off the track twice. That was a shame because we had two or three problems the previous day, which were only sussed right at the end of the third day and we didn't get a chance to try out the proposed solutions. One was a wobbling problem down the straight and, at Phillip Island in particular, this is a big issue because it's so fast and you have to brake hard into the first corner. But we thought we had a good direction for the fourth day and it was a blow that we didn't manage to make further progress.
However, despite this, we were very confident going into the first round at Qatar. I did some quick times there in December, despite the food poisoning I had suffered. The first day of the race weekend was wet, which wasn't a bad thing as I got to ride the PETRONAS FP1 for the first time in those conditions. I finished that session in P6, despite completing only four laps. It left me really looking forward to the weekend. I don't think it gave me too much confidence, as I had been reluctant to ride the bike at other tests in the wet. I was still learning how to ride a superbike and how to cope with so much more power than a Supersport bike – around 70bhp more – and 200bhp in the wet seemed quite daunting. But I could actually have pushed a lot harder and gone a lot quicker, so it was a real confidence booster.
The next session was wet and dry – a bit of a Mickey Mouse session – as no-one really tried anything because the forecast was good for the following two days. That was when our real problems started and I was struggling to find a set-up when I crashed, leaving me with a hole in my knee. I missed a whole crucial session and we were still experiencing the wobbling down the straights, something that hadn't happened at the test. I wasn't even reaching sixth gear because of it and was going a good 30kmh slower down the straight than at the test. It set me back a lot but I tried not to let it worry me, telling myself to be composed and to get myself together.
The knee injury wasn't comfortable but didn't trouble me too much in the afternoon, as once the adrenaline starts to pump, you just get your knee down again and forget about it. That afternoon didn't really solve anything, and I still wasn't able to get the bike to do what I wanted it to. So we made a plan for the morning warm-up. I had 20 minutes to get the bike set up for the race and our plans didn't work. There was nothing left to do but gamble for the race. We put all the weight onto the front of the bike, which might have worked when the fuel load was down towards the end of the race. But I have never raced the FP1 with a full tank of fuel and at the first three or four corners I nearly lost the front every time. I am aggressive on the brakes and, with so much weight on the front, it was locking up everywhere. I hadn't known what to expect when racing with the superbike guys, but after seven or eight corners I was doing okay before I went down. I had a few texts saying it looked as though there was contact with another bike. But I had lost the front seconds before, making me go wide as I was going underneath the other bike, so if there was contact it might have been more my fault than his.
In the second race I still had the same problem with the front but was catching Steve for about four or five laps. However, I decided to back off as I was getting a very heavy feeling from the front. But, with the same speed and throttle position as the previous lap at that particular corner, I went down again in another bizarre crash. I think we probably tried to do too much because we couldn't figure the wobbling out. So we regrouped for the following weekend at Phillip Island and decided to work slowly and try to figure it out. Carl was really good about it. He sat me down and I explained what I thought had happened. He partly agreed with me but he thinks I should take it more slowly at first. But it's difficult for any rider to slow down, although he stressed that I have the whole year to try and go progressively quicker. So the aim at Phillip Island was to try to learn to walk before I can run. I'm not too worried about that because I know that on my day I can be as fast as all of the guys out here. At a track I know better, and when I have had more experience of the bike with a better set-up, then I can start pushing harder.
My steep learning curve continued at Phillip Island, which was only my second visit to that circuit, and my times steadily improved over the weekend despite being affected yet again by blustery conditions. I listened to what everyone wanted me to do, which was to keep the bike upright and go steady. We gradually cured the wobbling that we experienced at Qatar, which was a massive relief. Unfortunately I didn't finish the first race as I high-sided coming out of Honda corner on the 11th lap while in 22nd place. I was struggling with grip which was causing the back to pump and the bike sprung me off. But after a long and boring race two I was relieved to finally finish a race – I'd forgotten where parc ferme was!!! My times were really slow and I was struggling like anything but I was determined to finish no matter what. I definitely felt better for getting one race under my belt that I could build on, starting with the two tests at Valencia and then Misano, in the lead up to the Valencia race.
