BSB Round 10 Assen, Netherlands

Coming to Assen I was feeling confident after a good weekend at Donington apart from the races with a crash and a mechanical. I felt as though I could come away with two podiums and luckily I did.

Friday practice one went well, I went out just to familiarise myself with the track and posted a best time of a 1.44 which I was happy with for first practice. for practice two we made one change with the gearing and I went out and instantly the bike felt better as in faster put of the slower turns I finish practice 2 with a 1.43. Qualifying on the Saturday we left the bike as of Friday practice two and I qualified 5th EVO on a 1.42.4 and I was very happy with as the top 5 were all within 0.5 so I knew I could have a good battle in the race! Also it was nice to have a qualifying with no arm pump! happy days.

Race 1 Saturday
As I pulled out on the sighting lap on full dry tyres I thought CRAP! as sector 2 and most of 3 was soaking wet as it had been raining on and off for the last half an hour! I pulled up on the grid and the sun was shining and I thought I'm going to stick with dry's. Most riders were wet front and dry rear, full wets or intermediate rears. The race started and by the time I got to sector 2 I had dropped back the 33rd overall and I was thinking I've made a bad choice and I spent the first 4 laps riding sector 2 and 3 like I was going to the shops. Luckily by lap 5 a dry line was appearing in sector 2 and 1 and 3 were bone dry so I had to start pushing, as it dried I past a lot of guys on full wets and was pushing on and managed to get to 4th EVO and 18th overall when the race finished, I then moved to 3rd EVO as the winner was disqualified for non-control fuel. My best time was a 1.47 and that put me 7th on the grid overall for tomorrows race! I was buzzing and crapping myself at the same time!

Race 2 Sunday
Warm up went well and I finished 1st EVO and that put me in a good mind set for the race.
I rolled up to 7th on the grid and thought wow I want to be here more often! As the lights went out it wasn't long till the red flag came out and the race had to be restarted after a turn 1 crash. On the grid again and the race was shortened to 12 laps. I got a good start and a few Supersport guys pasted me but I managed to stick on the back of them and get dragged along and I managed to maintain a 5 second gap to the next EVO's then James Rispoli past me and I pushed and sat on the back on him and moved the gap to the EVO's up to 7 seconds and set my best time of a 1:42.2. I finished the race first EVO and 13th overall. I was so happy to get my second win this season especially as this year had been so up and down and I feel like its all coming back together. Being back on the podium as a winner was amazing! This weekend had gone perfect from start to finish and we even had some luck in the first race! Massive thanks to Mark Hanna, Road and Race, Oxford Products, HJC, Muc off, GT85, The Pipe Werx, Maxton, Ellie the girlfriend, Mum and Dad for making it all possible, Chris and Michelle Lay and their friend Ian, Paul and Beverly and Alan Fry.

PHOTO's to come!