Round 3 - Snetterton 300

This weekend was a testing weekend. Problems seemed to arise throughout the weekend. In the end I made the best out of a bad situation.

Saturday

Qualifying was very mixed. First, I went out on the R6 for the MRO 600 qualifying. I got caught up in the pack and couldn’t put a good time in, qualifying P10 for race 1. Next was the Thunderbike Ultra qualifying where I was able to set to good time putting me P1 for race 1.

The first race of the day was the MRO 600. This is when the weekends problems began. The race initially got off to a good start and I began to make places up until lap 3 where an engine issue arose, and I began to lose power due to being down to 3 cylinders. I managed to keep going but this cost me places bringing it home in P10. 

The next race was the Thunderbike Ultra race, I got a good start off the line, but Symon got a better start leaving myself and Butterworth spending the next 3 laps having better pace but struggling to pass him. Once we were able to pass him the remaining 2 laps went well but I didn’t have the pace to challenge for P1. I brought it home in a comfortable P2.

Onto the next MRO 600 race. After investigating the R6 engine problem and realising it was terminal I went out on the wet bike which was massively down on power. I started the race P12. I managed to fight with the pack in front being able to out ride them in the corners and brought it home in P8. It was clear after this race that this bike was nowhere near competitive enough to continue to compete this weekend.

Sunday

Due to running out of running time on the Saturday, the 2nd race of the Thunderbike Ultra was held Sunday morning, I started this race P2. After getting past Symon in Agostini, I attempted to take the race to Butterworth but didn’t have enough pace to make any moves, brining it home P2 with a gap of 0.255 to the leader with a new lap PB of 1.58.144.

The decision was made Saturday night that the Yamaha R6 wet bike was not competitive enough in dry conditions, so we decided it was more beneficial to do the 2 Sunday races on next year’s Honda Fire blade in the Clubman 1000 class to gain to track time on it ready to compete in BSB next year.

Next was the first of the Clubman 1000 races. Due to swapping classes I had to start this race at the back of the grid. The first couple of laps were spent getting to grips with the bike and finding my breaking points. I then started to make my way through the pack finally finishing P3 in class.

After lunch it was time for the next Thunderbike Ultra race. On the warmup lap it quickly became apparent that the left foot peg was loose. It was a flip up peg, so it was now folding away from me. I managed to lean down on the straight and do it up as tightly as I could by hand, unfortunately this only held for 2 laps before it had worked itself loose again. I got to a good start, I got pushed wide in turn 2 and dropped back to 4th position. I spent the first 2 laps battling back to P2. By the end of lap 2 the footpeg had worked its way loose again to the point that I was missing gear due to the gear linkage coming loose. For the remainder on the race, I tried to hang on to my P2 whilst leaning down on the straights to tighten my foot peg up. Unfortunately, on the last lap I dropped down to P3.

Onto the last Clubman 1000 race of the day, I started this race P9 on the grid. I got a good start off the line and moved up to 7th place on track, this place was a pretty uneventful but valuable track time. I brought it home P2 in class.

The last race of the day was the Thunderbike Ultra race. I made a good start. I spent the next 3 laps battling for the lead until lap 4 when in turn to I hit the right footpeg on the curb which span it upside down so yet again the footpeg was folding away from me this time I was unable to spin it back. Fortunately, I managed to hold on to P2 for the remainder of the race. A lesson learnt both pegs will now be replaced for fixed pegs.

My next round will be at Donington Park on the 1st/2nd of June.

Photography credit:

📸Clinton Edwards

📸Sophie_Louise Photography