Brands Hatch Blog - Snowed Off!
Hi all
As you probably know by now Brands was cancelled due to the heavy snow, to be honest I’m probably one of the very few people who is secretly quite pleased about that, as it gives me another two weeks to get my shoulder right. It can’t have been an easy decision for the organisers to make and to tell all the hundreds of dedicated fans and also all the TV crews that it was cancelled, but they made the right decision as it would have been dangerous to ride in those conditions. We’re back at Brands on the 10th and 11th of May so all is not lost and hopefully I’ll be able to get some good results then. We will use the qualifying positions gained this weekend so I’ll be setting off for both races from sixth on the grid.
I was quite surprised with how well the shoulder felt on the Airwaves Ducati, which is the good news as I was a bit apprehensive before Brands on how it would be. The bike felt brilliant and the Airwaves team are just fantastic to work with and hopefully I can kick it up a gear as the season progresses and get some strong results.
Round one will now be at Thruxton in a couple of weeks time, this is only an hour away from where I live with Storka and his girlfriend so it will be a nice cruise up there in the motorhome and hopefully the weather might be kind to us and we might eventually get to do some racing!
I never would have thought on Friday that by Sunday the circuit would be under six inches of snow, as it was sunny and fairly warm. It allowed me to complete a good amount of laps and get various different things sorted on the Ducati. I’m settling in well to the new Pirelli’s, you have to change your riding style slightly to adjust to them but they are very good and the Pirelli team deserve a pat on the back for how hard they have been working to get everything right.
I was running some consistently good times but as every rider will tell you, you can always go faster! It was a little frustrating with my shoulder but bar that everything else felt great which is making me more eager to get fully fit and get my head down to some serious racing. Shakey is great as a team-mate and someone I’m hoping I will be able to learn a lot from, he looked super smooth on the bike all weekend and will definitely be pushing hard through the year for the Championship.
I think the team were pretty amused when Haslam rode into our garage twice over the weekend; old habits die hard as they say. I think he’s taken a bit of stick from everyone about it as Larry (Carter) managed to announce it at the CJ Riders Fund chat show on Saturday night, much to the amusement of the crowd! I think he was hoping to get away with it……no such luck!
I’m fired up now for Thruxton and I have another two weeks to have more physio on my shoulder and hopefully I’ll be feeling stronger by then. Thruxton is quite a demanding and physical track so I need to be as fit as I possibly can be!
Thanks to all the fans that showed up at Brands on Sunday, sorry you weren’t able to see any racing but hopefully we can all make it up to you over the year.
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Thanks again, Leon #2