Well what can I say about Brands, other than it was pretty special. Ok so I’ve won a few races this year, but the third race at Brands will definitely stick in my mind for a long while. I became the first rider since Niall Mackenzie in 1997 to take the most British Superbike race wins; I notched up number 14 in the last race. More so was getting Colin’s 100th win as a team manager, good times!

There’s always that little extra pressure when it’s your home round, it was the first triple BSB race weekend, plus a whole host of other things going on over the weekend, including the old legends on their classic bikes – that’ll be me in 40 years time (hopefully if they class me as a legend!!!). I had a heap of friends and family coming to watch me over the weekend and I knew that I had to pull something special out the bag to keep them entertained!

We had a couple of bike issues on the Friday morning but the Airwaves Team soon got it fixed and we were ready to rock and roll come the early qualifying on Saturday afternoon. I set pole position again, sometimes a wasted place for me as I do struggle with my starts. It did seem odd having a race on Saturday and getting race head on early was different.

Paul Bird had entered his World Superbike team for the weekend and I was quite looking forward to a bit of a battle with them. Broc Parkes certainly gave me a run for my money in all the races and it was really good to be pushed. Broc and I took off at the front and I think we were nearly 10 seconds in front of third placed man Stuart (Easton) at the end of the race. Another solid win for myself and the Airwaves Yamaha team, but with two more races to go on the Sunday I knew I had to ‘Kick Up a Gear’.

Something strange happened in the first race on Sunday, I got the whole-shot!!! Shock, horror, I think it’s my first one since Brands Hatch on the Bike Animal Honda in 2007 so I was pretty impressed! Starts, I have to say I have struggled with but it all seemed to come right in the first race and it was a nice feeling knowing I could do it!

My race two start however, went a tad wrong and I was sucked backwards like someone was holding a vacuum behind me! I was 12th into Paddock Hill and knew I would have my work cut out as I knew Broc would be pulling a gap at the front. I made some interesting, safe but fast passing moves on some people and finally I had Broc in my sights. I didn’t want to push to hard and risk crashing or totally destroying my tyres so I just kept my head down. I knew what I had to do and I knew how much the second race meant to everyone – I had to win, there was no option!

By lap four I was in second place but Broc already had a 3.4 second lead over me, I had to dig deep and even though it took a while I passed him on lap 15. The last laps were long laps, I could just see Colin in my head saying don’t do anything silly! I kept her going and brought the Airwaves Yamaha home for another win, but this time a special win and if it wasn’t for the entire Airwaves Yamaha team these records wouldn’t have been broken. I’m extremely grateful for all their help, effort and support that they have given me so far and thank them all for helping me achieve what I did at Brands, it’s much appreciated.

The support I had from the fans at Brands was fantastic, I know people have said the Championship has got a little boring but the cheers on the podium that I got in each race really does make it all worthwhile and it was great to see so many Airwaves Yamaha shirts around.

Thanks everyone and hope the season continues like this, next stop Cadwell Park, let’s hope it’s a good one!

Cheers

Leon