High Winds and Rain at Snetterton

March 20, 2004 - The third round and the second weekend back racing again. I was looking forward to this and had hoped for dry weather so I could at last have a decent ride on my new bike. The Friday practice session was not booked to save money and also because I know Snetterton reasonably well. The weather forecast kept changing during the week, getting worse all the time. Luckily I hadn’t booked the practice, as there was very little track time due to the bad weather.

Greville saved us a space in the pit garages and a place to park the caravan. Very lucky as there was no way we could put up the awning with all the wind. We shared the garage with Greville and Jay Fernandez, both top Supersport 400 title contenders.

Saturday race day started off wet and windy. Practice went OK but very tentative again on the wet / drying track. The bike felt a bit strange but with a new type of wet rear tyre that I was scrubbing in I thought it was just that.

By the race the circuit was completely dry but still very windy. We got to the collecting area for the first Supersport 600 race and while waiting to go onto the circuit it started raining. The organisers had to call for wet race conditions so decided to have an early lunch with our race then being the first race after lunch. I changed the wheels to full wets and was ready to go out (only just) after lunch. Riding to the collecting area I thought the front tyre felt soft. The sighting lap proved this, as the bike was difficult to ride and did not want to turn. Halfway around I thought of pulling in but decided to have a go anyway.

I was on the 4th row in 15th on the grid. My start was good and I got into 3rd place coming up to the first turn, in a position to get into the lead. One problem though, I had no idea if I would survive the first corner on the tyre so I backed off rather than slinging it in and crashing in front of the whole pack. I came out of the first corner in 5th, got passed by a couple of riders by the next corner and then held 7th to the end of the back straight. At the esses the bike just in front of me went down and I only just avoided the crash. I ran wide onto the rumble strip, nearly onto the grass and expected a whole group to come past but no-one did.

I kept my 6th at the end of the first lap with the leaders just pulling away slightly. The bike was not steering well and I was trying to use as little front brake as possible worrying that the tyre could come of the bead and deflate completely. The straight was the most difficult as the bike kept tank-slapping, being set off by gusts of wind and bumps. I wound the steering damper up to the max and this helped a little but I still had problems. Over the next few laps a drying line started emerging on parts of the circuit. My confidence was not good enough to push any harder and I felt a bit tense riding because the front was handling well. A couple of times the front slid at the chicane but I could get my foot down in time to catch it so stayed up.

As a result there were quite a few bikes passed me towards the end of the race. There were also the inevitable crashes along the way, luckily most behind me. I finished the race in the points in 12th place and was pleased with my result considering the bike and track conditions. When I got back to the garage, I checked the front tyre pressure, there was only 5psi! I was more than pleased then to find that I had finished an entire race on a tyre that was as flat as a pancake and still came 12th!

Compared to my first outing in the wet this was much better, even with a flat tyre, and I even managed to lap some slower riders.

The Supersport 600 Final was not run as all racing was abandoned due to the high winds. A group of 125GP riders crashed when a gust of wind blew the off the circuit. At the end of the Supersport 400 race the wind had picked up so much that there was structural damage to the circuit and fence panels being blown onto the circuit.

I’m looking forward to the next race at Croft and hope the weather is better. It will be nice to have a dry race for a change. I’ll only have 10 minutes to learn the track in practice but hopefully I’ll be around the 4th row on the grid and with a good start I can follow some of the faster riders. My goals for Croft are to make the top 20 in the A final and the top 10 in the first race qualifier, in the dry. If wet, just to do as well as possible and start finding the limits of the wet tyres.

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