Jones column: Silverstone nightmare.

In the latest of his exclusive columns for Crash.net, Foggy Petronas rider Craig Jones reviews a nightmare home debut as a WSBK rider - the young Brit falling heavily on the first lap of Silverstone race one, ruling him out of both the restart and race two...

It's three days after Silverstone and I am still getting headaches from my crash in the first race, so I hope you all appreciate me spending time in front of the computer! Since my last column, I have not managed to finish a race, although Monza was through no fault of my own and the crash at Silverstone was not entirely down to me. One of the Ten Kate guys had gone onto the grass and came back on in front of me so I had to shut off quickly as I was exiting the corner going onto the back straight. I was obviously too keen to get back on the gas and the bike just spat me off.

I made it back from the medical centre with seconds to spare before pit-lane was closed for reforming the grid after the red flag. But, as I sat on the line, I could barely see my hand in front of my face because of blurred vision so there was no option but to wheel the bike off the line. I felt sick, tired and had headaches for the next few hours so there was never much chance of me being able to make it out for the second race. That was such a shame because I was sure I could have gone well and been in the points, even in the top 10.

I hadn't been able to get into much of a rhythm throughout the weekend for one reason or another. The first session was red-flagged and then I was black-flagged for no reason. Obviously the Saturday was a wash-out for us and, without being in Superpole and with the forecast good for Sunday, there was no point in going out in the wet. But in Sunday morning warm-up I got into a good rhythm and I was only 1.8 seconds off Bayliss. We also made some changes after warm-up that I know would have made me go quicker. So to have to sit out both races was frustrating to say the least.

I guess I just have to keep looking on this year as a learning experience. Whatever happens, whether it's good or bad, I just have to use it to my advantage for later in my career. And I am enjoying parts of this season. When everything is promising and I can push hard for fast laps then I feel I am making progress, although I have learnt to expect some difficulties around the corner.

That was certainly true at Monza - a circuit which I really enjoyed riding at, especially with the fast straights and famous sections like Ascari. However, a recurring problem of stability on the straights re-appeared and that was a problem all weekend. We have done some work at it since at RAF Wittering - which is only five minutes from my house and close enough for me to hear them when they are doing night-time exercise with Harriers, so it was nice to get my own back with some noise of my own. But, there, we didn't have any problems with stability at all. It now seems to be track-specific - certain exits onto the long straights set the bike off and it continues to wobble until I shut the throttle off. The problems at Monza were out of my control and we knew that there was a chance we would have some difficulties on that circuit as you are on wide open throttle for nearly 50 per cent of the lap.

We head to Brno for a three-day Pirelli test next week and we will obviously be keeping an eye on straight-line stability there, and looking to get a good set-up for the race. I haven't raced a Superbike at Brno, or the venue for the next race, Misano, but I am confident that I am making progress and I certainly feel more comfortable on the bike now.

Craig