Donington was a bit of a random weekend for me with one thing and another. I won my second cycle race last week, which I was pretty stoked about and felt good as I headed into Donington for round three of the British Superbike Championship. I got up to Doni mid afternoon on Friday, met up with the Airwaves Yamaha team and checked in and made sure everything was ok.

I headed out for dinner as usual with Storks and Carly and I wasn’t feeling 100% and as the evening went on the man flu seemed to set in and in a major way. I felt pretty rotten by the time I got back to the track on Friday night and hoped a good night’s sleep would help. It didn’t and I seemed to get progressively worse as the weekend panned out, I took some advice from the medical centre to see what I could take to make me feel a bit better.

By first practice I was ready to put the aches and pains behind me and just get out there on the Airwaves Yamaha, get my head down and get on with the job in hand. Once again the Yamaha felt good from the off-set and as the weekend progressed we found a good set up quickly, which I was able to set good consistent race times on.

I headed out a littler earlier in the third roll for pole session than what I did at Oulton, as I did cut it a little bit fine there! I got a good lap in with no traffic and was able to take my second consecutive pole position. My biggest threat for the weekend once again looked like it was coming from Suzuki rider Sylvain Guintoli and I knew he was setting some good strong times.

As we lined up for the first race Sylvain was missing from the grid and I wasn’t overly sure what was going on. I later found out he was involved in an accident and has broken his lower leg and looks like he could be out for a while. I’m gutted about this as I was looking forward to racing against him during the season and having some good battles. I’d like to wish him a very speedy recovery and hope he’ll make it back on track before the end of the season, we wish him all the best and hope he keeps his spirits up high.

With Sylvain missing it was all a bit up in the air as to what was going to happen I knew my team-mate James would be strong at Donington as he has a lot of knowledge of the track. Once again I got a pretty shocking start and was boxed into Redgate and was in about seventh place going down into Craners. I knew I would have to fight hard in the first few laps to ensure that the leading pack didn’t make a break. I found my best passing place was into the Fogarty Esses and by lap five I was sat at the front of the pack. It seemed a long 15 laps to the chequered flag but a nice feeling to take my fourth consecutive win! James was second so it was the first 1-2 this season for the Airwaves Yamaha team.

I was feeling pretty exhausted after race one and it took a lot out of me but was keen to get back out there for the second race. I got another bad start but the race was red flagged on lap two due to an incident involving Karl Harris and what they thought was an oil leak. The race was declared a full re-start, this time I got away and was third into the first corner. It was a manic first lap with everyone trying to settle into a position. I ended up locked in a battle with the very experienced Chris Walker and he was definitely putting up a fight, I just got myself into second place and as I approached the Melbourne Loop the bike cut out, similar to what happened at Brands and I thought my race was over. I turned it off, left it a minute and restarted it in the hope to reset everything, it seemed to work but I was dead last in 25th place and about seven seconds behind the last man on track.

I wasn’t sure what I was able to do but just got my head down in the hope to try and gain some points. By lap 11 I’d worked myself to 15th place and anything more was a bonus as the guys in front of me were pretty well spread out. I knew I was doing good lap times and was a lot faster than the guys in front but the best I could manage was 12th.

I’m still leading the Championship and hopefully everything will be sorted for Thruxton this weekend and I can be back on the box with any luck! James took his first BSB win so I’d like to congratulate him on that. Airwaves Yamaha are now 1-2 in the overall Championship standings so Col is chuffed! Still a long way to go so we just have to see what will happen. I’ve not got much time to do much this week, Julian my trainer has banned me from training and told me I have to rest and get myself fully fit for this weekend. I’ll be heading to Thruxton tomorrow sometime and see how we get on!

Cheers for all the messages of support! I have a new lid so keep your eyes peeled on my site for a full explanation coming soon!

Cheers

Leon #2