| 7th out
of 56 starters. Quali: 9th. ~600 spectators Great season final - 7th out of 56, gotta say, this was a major effort of pure will power... Race weekend started right after a New York trip and then the bike showed major technical problems. Luckily that was fixed, but this was definitely the toughest race of the season for me. But fun racing! |
| After the mixed feedback on the track layout from last time, they changed the layout
back to the old one. A version that I like much more, so that was a
good thing, Although I practiced the other layout in the meantime and I
was prepared either way... Complication this weekend wasthat I arrived from New York 8am Saturday morning, then had to fix some mechanical clutch issues with the bike and then went to practice Saturday afternoon. So far so good... after one lap, the bike didn’t work! So, back home, taking all apart and putting it back together... |
| Sunday morning race day, back to the track. Straight to qualifying,
the bike was indeed fixed but the set up was still off! I put additional
spacers into the clutch, which led to over-braking into the corners and on
top of this, the front brake felt soft, leading to some extreme
sliding. No crash though. I ended 9th in qualifying and back in the
pits, I had to again open up the bike, adjust the clutch settings,
flushing front brake - man, Izod should sponsor a mechanic as well ;-) On the qualifying itself, I did not get into a good qualification rythm and also suffered arm pump, with a lot of jet lag in the bones. One fast lap only, got me to 9th, but well below my potential. Good thing was the position on the grid - on the outside. This leaves more room to maneavur heading towards turn 1! Still was unsure how the race would go because I really felt like in bad condition in qualifying and it was unclear how the bike fix will work out... Quali result: 9th |
| Sooo, you may know that they say you can't win a race in the first
lap. Guess what, I decided to do exactly that... so all determined for
first race and first turn, got off the start great and shot up to 4th, then pushed off
the track on the (may add: wet!) grass, but kept the throttle open.
Quite thrilling with a no-profile slick tire... I managed to stay in 8th
position and gain one more in the race through a nice outside corner
pass! Speed was really good and the bike worked, I closed the gap to the group in front of
me, but it was too late and I got tired. So I backed off and finished
7th in race one - not bad at all after all! Race 1 result: 7th |
| Race 2 same story, all bets on the start and this time I was even
in 5th position, decided to stay away from the grass this time... I
lost two positions during first three laps, but was pushing hard on
6th. If I caught him, this would make 6th for the day and I really
pressured him for some laps - but he didn’t crack. Then fatigue came
over me, fell a bit back and just wanted to defend my day result. I was
caught on the wrong foot and lost a position, took me totally by
surprise. Got really tired and holding on to it was really only a matter of pure will
power; my mind took over my body and I did it! Very nice, satisfying
season finish! Race 2 result: 8th Overall: 7th |
| This was the last race of the season. Now all about recovering and
thoughts are all on 2013 already! There is one Supermoto demonstration
in Gorichem again in December, which I plan to attend. |