I have always had a lot of success at Silverstone over the past few years, so I headed into Friday’s free practice full of confidence looking for a good result come sunday.
 
The first session was not very clever. It had been 18 months since I had last been and it took a while to get back dialled in and up to speed. I managed to finish 8th which I was happy enough with but we were struggling in certain sections of the track and needed to make some changes.
 
In the afternoon session, the bike was a lot better straight away and after only 5 laps I was very happy with how it was going and the changes we had made. I swapped to my number 2 bike and did 3 laps on that as it has been a while since I have rode it, but Im not a big fan of it in the dry, and I can never really get comfortable on it. With 20 minutes to go I was back on my number 1 bike and pushing hard when I lost the front through Maggotts, at about 120mph. It was a massive crash and the bike destroyed itself, cart-wheeling end over end, luckily I was fine and run back for my spare bike. I finished the session 6th which was okay considering I had only done a handful of laps.
 
After Friday’s crash I was down to just one bike, which had my best engine in and I knew I needed to qualify well. I struggled in the first session, mainly for confidence, not wanting to do anything silly and risk another crash. I ended up 10th which was disappointing, but looking forward to the afternoon.
 
Q2 was a lot better. I was consistently in the 29’s and felt back to my old self. I did however have a small vibration which was bothering me which I had to block out as both tyres had spun on the rims. On my fast lap I caught traffic and lost 0.4 which would have put me 4th and on the front row. I ended up 10th but I knew I was going to be strong come race day.
 
Warm up went well, I did a 29.6 after 2 laps, only a few tenths slower than I qualified. I was 4th.
 
As the race approached I was very calm and focused. I got a good start and got stuck in on the first lap going from 10th to 8th, then at the start of the 2nd lap I passed Joe Dickinson, then Alastair Seeley at Bridge. The safety car came out after 2 laps and I was 6th, on the back of the front group. On Lap 5 the race got back underway and I tried my upmost to stay on the front pack but I was loosing about 2-3 tenths per lap and they edged away. I set my fastest ever lap of Silverstone in the race, 29.1. I inherited 5th when Rob Frost crashed at the complex. I kept very consistent in the 29’s and managed to hold off Lowry on the final lap. I actually closed the gap to Plater and Glen on the final few laps.
 
I was very happy with the result of the weekend. It was a difficult weekend one way or another, and it could have been easy to have a 10th or 12th but we dug deep when we looked in trouble and produced the goods come race day. I was the top Honda in the race which is important too. We have closed the gap on Lowry in the championship to 3rd, so while it is possible I will keep on fighting. The good thing is 4th place is the worst we can do, so that in itself is a great achievement.

I would like to say thanks to Centurion, and a massive thank you to my mechanics my Dad and Sim, and Alan who all worked very hard to get me out on the very best package. We now head to Brands, which is one of my favourite tracks and the final race of the season, where it would be nice to round things off back on the podium.

Cheers

Westy #27

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.