Tel-Emmett-ry: Brands Hatch Indy.

In the latest of her columns for Crash.net, Sean Emmett's girlfriend Lauren Carter reviews the opening round of the 2006 Bennetts British Superbike championship, at Brands Hatch...

Hi Everyone!

Well the season could have been over before it began for Sean as he suffered a massive high-side at the end of the straight in freezing cold conditions at the BSB test at Snetterton the week before Brands, but miraculously came away unscathed. People doubted if he would be on the grid at Brands as the team only have one bike, but luckily with the mechanics working on it 24:7 the bike was restored to its former glory, well done guys.

The weather conditions were horrendous at Snetterton with temperatures dropping to minus 2 on the back straight. I was wearing 3 jumpers, a massive cardigan, coat, scarf, hat, gloves and sometimes Sean's coat on top and I was still freezing! We weren't able to get the desired testing time or much set up data, but it did give Sean some practice on the Kawasaki.

The support from everyone was amazing, the public and the press came up to Sean with nothing but praises and offering help - so thanks if it was you! Sky, ITV and MCN came to the garage to have a look at the bike and said they would provide some coverage for Sean so that cheered him up a lot to know that people still support him and want him racing this year.

We came away from the test with Sean covered in bruises from the back of his neck (where the bike hit him) right down to his knees but thankfully still in one piece, so he was pretty grateful - as you can see from the top two pictures - to be alive!

We drove to Brands Hatch on Friday morning from home as we only live 45 minutes away. It was cold again so with no hospitality and no motorhome we took refuge in the Dunlop Caf?, and camped out there for much of the weekend with free hot chocolate and coffee all day!

The Dunlop Caf? is great, you always see people you know, it's nice to get away from all the stress and havoc in the garage and go and catch up with the goss and a hot drink! I don't like tea or coffee and believe it or not guys, there is only so much chocolate a girl can drink! The weather again was not on Sean's side with it being neither wet nor dry the conditions were just too dodgy, and Sean knew he had to be careful; he didn't want to throw it down the road before the first race so he held back a bit.

On Friday the security let us into the pits with the car 'cos Sean had all his leathers and helmets etc and it's a pretty long walk from the gate. The new leathers turned up and were a disaster, far too big, so we had to take his old IFC leathers back home with us over night. My mum and dad helped us out by scrubbing all the dirt off from the crash at Snetterton and sewing on his sponsors' logos.

With the kit in the car we needed to gain entrance to the pits on Saturday and assumed we could drive the car in just like Friday, but as always racing never runs smoothly and the security guy was different from Friday and just wouldn't let us under the tunnel.

Sean being so tense lost his cool and just drove straight through... about 10 mins later outside the garage, around 6 security staff came over, writing down the number plate and pass number and asking who was driving the car. One of the guys recognised me so he guessed who was driving! He gets on well with Sean and laughed, but Sean still needed to apologise to the security guy at the tunnel or they wouldn't let him race as he had apparently driven over his feet!

You could imagine Sean's face when they told him, I was in the car and I would have noticed if we had run someone over. So we drove to the tunnel entrance and Sean spoke to him. Apparently we "stormed off in the car and drove over his feet", Sean said he didn't hear him yell out or anything and he replied "I have steel toe caps so it didn't hurt" what a big fuss over nothing!

Happy Birthday Nick from Shoei, who's birthday was on qualifying day, so it was free birthday cake for everyone in the paddock with the amount of cakes he had. Helen, the wife of Ian a mechanic with Virgin Yamaha, caught me in the tent and we both ended up stuffing our faces. Matt and Nick from Shoei do such a good job with all the helmets. They work really hard, especially this year as they have more riders than ever wearing them. They have to clean them, fix on new visors, put on new tear offs and dry them out for all the sweaty riders like Sean ready for the next practice.

Everyone always says that Sean sweats so much because he's unfit but it's because he is an extremely hot person and will sweat bucket loads even when he's mowing the lawn, unlike me who is a really cold person constantly moaning about the cold weather and turning up the heating to full blast whenever I can.

Qualifying did not run smoothly, which isn't surprising with the weather conditions being so bad. Steve Plater crashed on the 3rd lap and the session was immediately red flagged. I think he injured himself quite badly and Sean mentioned he had torn some ligaments in his ankle - Steve, if your reading, I hope your O.K.

Otherwise the weather stayed dry until the last 5mins so it was everyone's first dry test all weekend! Wily Michael put in a qualifier first thing, I'm sure he can smell rain and I think everyone pretty much followed just in case. Sean ended up on the 4th row, not exactly where he wanted or thought he would be, but was grateful he hadn't crashed and the 4th row wasn't a massive disaster. But at the moment we can wave good bye to that gorgeous Audi S4 up for grabs, as we have no qualifying points so far.

Sean's always tense on race days and the first race of the year is always the worst. Morning warm up was going well and Sean was consistently in the top 10 (an improvement from the day before). However Ray (Stringer) was starting to get nervous as the top riders were coming in during the session and getting on their number 2 bikes with front slicks. Sean was still out on front wets and pushing the bike hard. So they called him 'In' on his pit board, he wasn't impressed as he wanted to do some practice starts so Ray let him go back out for the last 40 secs.

After morning warm-up we usually just try to keep busy so Sean doesn't get too nervous. At Brands we had 25 friends and family come to watch so we caught up with everyone and once again went to the Dunlop Caf?. Before we knew it, it was Pit lane Walkabout and Sean had to go to the garage to do some signing for all the fans.

Meanwhile I went and met Sandrine and sat as we usually do on pit wall. If you were there you would have noticed the two guys on stilts with big heads, one as Lavilla and the other as Shakey. We thought they were great and the kids loved them so well done whoever's idea that was, it kept the kids and adults amused! I saw them getting in photos with the Bennett's Girls so I think they had fun as well!

Sean told me that a guy had come up to him in pit lane telling him how much he admired him and has followed him all his career and gave Sean a ?20 note to go and buy himself a drink! That has never happened before but Sean thought it was great! David, one of Sean's special fans, came up and had a hug! We always hear you David when Sean's on the grid.

Before we knew it Sean was on the grid getting ready with his head down waiting for the lights to go off for the first race. It was a disappointing start and he got blocked in and was running 15th. Within a couple of laps Tommy Hill suffered a big highside and then 20 laps in, Leon high sided. Sean was just starting to gain quite a bit on Ben Wilson when the race was red flagged and the results declared.

Later that evening we saw Leon's crash on Sky, I was amazed that he rode in the next race. But it was similar to when Sean rode the Monstermob Ducati in 2004 and crashed with Richards at Paddock in race 1. He held an ice pack on his broken fingers between the races in the back of Birdy's truck and came out fighting in race two to beat Michael Rutter, all Sean said was that the adrenaline must have just kicked in. Sean ended up 13th which isn't too bad for the first race of the season so the team were pretty happy.

After the first race Sean was much more relaxed, but was now getting frustrated by the weather. There was a massive crash in the Supersport race with the rider lying across the track not moving. The race had to be stopped and the results declared, but the Superbikes couldn't be pushed forward because of the ITV slot. So we were all just hanging about for what seemed like forever.

The driving wind seemed to be keeping most of the rain away but the 2nd race was declared 'wet' with misty rain falling and the track was obviously not drying. The team took a gamble and decided to go out on a front intermediate and rear slick but unluckily, it started to rain harder once the race started and Sean couldn't even lean the bike over so he had no choice but to come in.

I think Michael Rutter and Jonny Rea made the same or similar tyre choices and they pulled in as well, it was the wrong gamble but at least we weren't the only ones. Sean said Lavilla was on rear slicks as well but Airwaves Ducati has such a large budget they can afford to spend thousands on tyres with a tyre rack full of them so they must have chosen a softer rear. Sean ended up paying for his own tyres, something he has never had to do before - he purchased one wet, one intermediate and one slick.

The Day after the race Sean usually likes to just chill out at home and sleep till at least midday! However, we went to see Sean's mum, her partner Gavin and Sean's younger brother James in Selsey for a late Mother's Day lunch. For the rest of the week Sean will be constantly on the phone to the team or in meetings.

I am busy setting up Sean's first Official Website and it's taking me forever! Luckily Glyne Lewis a professional freelance photographer, offered to help me when I spoke to him at the Snetterton Test so he's already set up the basics for me I'm working hard, hopefully the end result will be good, it's my first time building a website and I can tell you it's very time consuming but immensely rewarding!

Have a look it's www.seanemmett.tictacwebsites.com at the moment but within a couple of days it will be www.seanemmett.co.uk so I hope you enjoy it! Other than that I will be fishing for some sponsors to help Sean and the team out so if you're interested in sponsoring Sean, contact Crash.net and they will give you my details!

Oh, and Nic (my sister in Huddersfield) if you're reading this I'll see you Thursday.

Lots of Luv

Lauren x

www.seanemmett.co.uk