I headed to Cadwell full of confidence after a great result at Knockhill. I was really looking forward to my home round and looking for another podium in front of my friends and family.
 
FP1 was not a great way to start the weekend. We tried some new front forks and rear shock and despite many changes during the session I could not get happy with the new set up and it showed in the lap time and result. I was only 14th.
 
FP2 was not much better. We went back to what we knew with the old suspension and I was still bizarrely struggling. It was not like me as I am normally fast out of the blocks but something wasn’t right and I had no confidence with the front of the bike and I was really fighting it. I was pretty upset again to be 14th.
 
Q1 was wet and it was like starting with a clean slate. I was looking forward to a good session and been back up the front. After only 15 minutes or so I got black flagged when the engine was smoking and I had to ride my number 1 bike which I like to keep as my dry bike. I did reasonably well as there was only ten minutes of the session remaining and I ended up 15th but it was not what I was hoping for. I had the same problems in the wet as I did in the dry, which set alarm bells ringing and we finally found the problem we had chased all weekend, which was frustrating to say the least!!
 
Q2 was dry and straight away the bike felt a lot better. I kept chipping away throughout the session but it was difficult as I was two good sessions behind everyone else. I was running in the top 6 but ended up 9th. I got traffic on my last lap which was my fastest which was disappointing. I was only 0.8 off pole which was good and 0.2 could have put me 5th.  It was certainly going to make my race hard work!
 
Warm up went ok, we changed the set up slightly but track conditions were quite different to qualifying. I was happy enough and ended up 9th. We seemed to be struggling for rear grip slightly.
 
I knew I had to get a good start and get away with the front group. I got a really good start and went into turn 1 6th and was 5th by Park corner. Unfortunately the red flags came out after a incident at Charlies. At the restart I again made a good start but was still 9th into turn 1, and ended the first lap 8th. I really attacked the riders in front of me passing Chris Martin and Steve Brogan, and chasing down Paul Young. I passed Youngy around half race distance and he sat with me and came back by with two to go. I put a good move on him into park then rode a defensive last lap or so to finish 5th which I was made up with after a difficult weekend. It doesn’t sound fantastic after my previous 2nd and 3rd, but on a difficult weekend we dug deep and came away with good solid points. We have closed in slightly on Lowry in the championship and pulled away from Chris Martin and Brogie, so it was not too bad. I was happy as I made a really good first few laps, which is where I have struggled over the past few races. I’m looking forward to Croft, I am aiming to qualify on the front row, and I will be going after my debut win at my 2nd home race! There are only 3 to go and I need a win of the board before the year is out.
 
I would just like to thank the whole Centurion team, and my mechanics who have worked overtime this weekend to make sure we had the best possible chance of a good result. See you all at Croft
 
James

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