Silverstone :
We went to Silverstone feeling quietly confident after a top ten result at the previous round at Thruxton. After Friday we were lying in 23rd position which I wasn’t particularly happy with as I had a few problems with the gearing.
As I woke up on Saturday morning I was feeling confident that I could improve on my performance from the day before. I ended the first qualifying session in 22nd place again I wasn’t impressed with as I had improved my lap times but I hadn’t really moved much further up the grid.
Going into the second and final qualifying session I knew I had to be on the first four rows of the grid to be able to get a good result in the race on Sunday. Once again I took a big chunk of time off of my previous lap times and was lying 14th before I tried a qualifying tyre.
I came into the pits and my mechanics put a qualifying tyre in the Centurion Honda. I went back out on the bike but unfortunately I was not quick enough on my warm up lap and I was not able to do a good lap on a qualifier. I managed to end the session in 16th place and that’s where I would start for the 18-lap race on Sunday
In morning warm up I took it reasonably steady as the track temperature was very low and wanted to be in good shape for the race.
As the lights went out I made a good start and gained a few places off the line but then I got boxed into the first corner. I ended the first lap in 18th place and started working on making up places, once the safety car had gone in due to a crash at the last chicane, my lap times were consistently low and I started catching my team mate, Westy. Who at that point was in a battle for 12th place, I felt confident I could catch them. Unfortunately with six laps to go my tyres started losing grip as we had chosen a tyre which was too soft. I was caught by the riders behind me and ended the race in 21st position. I was quite disappointed with the result but that’s racing and we will learn form the mistake, after all it is my first season in the Supersport Class!
However, I am very much looking forward to Oulton Park where I will be aiming to score more points! I would like to thank all the Centurion Racing squad for the amount of effort they all put in every weekend.
Thanks and see you all at Oulton!!
Dan #20
