Smart column: 190bhp superbikes and dirty washing.

Hawk kawasaki rider, Scott Smart, has had mixed fortunes in the last couple of rounds. Inbetween racing 180bhp superbikes, rebuilding race engines, and doing his dirty washing, he told crash.net all about it...

It's been a busy month to say the least, what with two BSB rounds and squeezing more power out of the ZX-10s. I helped build an engine for my spare bike in the week running up to Thruxton and took all the skin off my knuckles in the process, which wasn't nice, especially when one got infected just in time for Brands!

While I was building the motor, a certain ex-MotoGP Frenchman was sizing-up a certain other BSB team with the view to a ride. It was funny because he couldn't quite work out why a BSB rider was building his own engine. I don't think he was altogether sure about the situation, because that NEVER happens in MotoGP!

I wasn't really looking forward to Thruxton because it's one of those tracks that causes me problems one way or another every time I go there. Even so, we got there, plugged away and got the bike reasonably good. I qualified ok (sixth), although Glen was ahead - only just, but then he crashed out of the first race and broke his arm which was a downer.

Thruxton's really fast and bumpy, so when the bike's not set-up well it's properly scary trying to hang on. Talking of scary, Yukio Kagayama's stand-in, Gregorio Lavilla, crashed into me twice in the races and I have to say that he was definitely there for himself and not Suzuki. He was, to be frank, dangerous because he hadn't grasped the concept that the barriers were at the edge of the track in a lot of places. If I had the opportunity to ride with him again I'd certainly be harsher on him.
At the last corner on the last lap I rode around the outside of him, but I was stupid enough to give him a couple of inches gap so I didn't knock him off. Then he swooped in front of me and slammed into my front wheel. I was so angry with myself, especially after seeing him knock his own team-mate off and bang into me twice in the race, because I gave him a few inches of room and he clearly didn't deserve it. Git. That and Glen getting hurt as seriously as he did (broken left arm) took the shine off the weekend.

I had planned to race my remote control car the following weekend, because I've not really had the time or the chance to use it this year, but the decision was made for me when I looked in the truck for a fresh set of clothes and instead found a huge pile of dirty washing and a laughably small pile of clean clothes. So, under duress, I spent the weekend cleaning clothes, ironing and preparing the car, even though I knew I wouldn't get to race it - glamorous this BSB lifestyle, don't you think..?

Although that was a disappointment I've just been confirmed as having an entry to the model car racing world championships in Florida in October. I know I'll get a hammering there but it sounds like fun and it means I'll definitly be going away at the end of the year for a break. I quite often end up not making enough time to go away and relax so that will be perfect.

Before Brands we did an awful lot of dyno work on the bikes, which was long hours for me but I was really pleased with the results. Then when I set off for Brands I started to get the most horrendous hay fever. All Wednesday afternoon and Thursday I was incapacitated, so I took something to calm it down and that left me feeling a bit do-lally for the rest of the weekend.

From that point on I wasn't quite with it, plus I think I went with possibly the wrong approach, which was to win the races, and just ended up trying too hard. That led me up the garden path with settings because I was upsetting the bike a lot. After that we were chasing set-up problems that probably didn't exist - it was more down to the way I was riding.

Fortunately we recognised that fairly early on and started to concentrate on sorting my riding out as opposed to sorting out the bike. Unfortunately I hit a false neutral down Paddock Hill bend in qualifying and ended up slinging it down the road, which wasn't good. I banged my head quite hard which sent me even more do-lally than before. That meant a late one on Saturday night for my mechanics, Paulo and Lee, which was a bummer because they work their socks off anyway. Sorry guys.

I rode better in the wet warm-up than I had all weekend, which boded well for the race. I'd got my head together by then and felt much better on the bike. The races were very wet and I made blinding starts in both. I could have potentially ended up on the podium in the first because, whether the pace car was out or not, I was at the back of the leading group. Sadly I never got to find out because the bike broke down. The worst thing is that it was an ?18 part that went wrong.

You'll probably have seen that I had a new team-mate at Brands. Glen's out for a few rounds with a broken arm, so TT winner John McGuinness is standing in. I've known John for ages and when Stuart (Hicken, Hawk team boss) asked me who would make a good team-mate Mr McGuinness was an ideal candidate.

He rode really, really well and got a podium first time out. It was a great debut for him because he's just returned from a strong Isle of Man and now he's shown that he can do it on the short circuits as well. When I broke down we needed another Kawasaki up there and that's exactly what John did. He did the job perfectly.

In the week after Brands I did a trackday at Cadwell with John Reynolds and got my first opportunity to see the new chicane. It's tight, but safer, and it needs to be at that track. I enjoyed the day though, especially watching John get merry on a pint in the bar afterwards. If only he could handle a pint of lager as well as he handles a 190bhp superbike, eh...

So it's onwards and upwards to Knockhill in Scotland. With it being in July this year it might even stay dry. Well, we can hope. See you there!

Smartie pants