Steady start to the season for Grant
Grant went into the practise session having only been on 1 trackday before the first round, this wasn’t ideal but due to the weather conditions leading up to the first round this was all Grant could do. On the small Indy circuit of Brands Hatch Grant was feeling very rusty and with most of his competitors being abroad testing, he was finding things difficult.
Grant finished the 30minute free practise session in 17th.
Grant was looking forward to qualifying as it would mean he was out on new tyres and could continue to get back into the swing of things and settle down. Grant made good progress with the bike and his riding, He was feeling confident but due to the nature of the small Indy circuit, time where very close this was a downfall for Grant as he felt he was putting in a lot of effort and not getting the reward. He finished qualifying in a very disappointing 25th position and would start the race from row 7!
After how qualifying had gone Grant was really looking forward to getting on with racing as he tends to race better than he qualifies. Grant made a good start to the race jumping up into 20th position in the early laps. Grant continued to make up positions and his lap times where coming down too. He finally got to the front of the pack he was battling in and began to make in roads and close down the pack in front. At half distance Grant was a couple of seconds behind a group which went all the way up to 8th position. Grant was finding it hard to catch the group in front but he used his stamina and concentration to keep plugging away. He eventually caught the group but unfortunately ran out of laps. Grant felt he would have pushed his way through and gained some more positions if things had been different. He finished 15th and collected a point for his trouble.
Grant was rather disappointed with his performance from the weekend but felt it was the best he could do under the circumstances.
Grant now has less than a week to re-group as he prepares to get ready for the next round as one of his favourites circuits, Thruxton.
Grant would like to thank the following for all their support:
J&S Accessories
HWW Racing
Economy Spares Ltd
Ferris Racing
Bond-A-Band Transmissions Ltd
Barnes DAF
KneedownUK.com
Stavros-Sports.com
HWW Tyrewarmers
General Banner Company
All the 79 club members & all the people who attended over the weekend Laura Standen, Sam Black, Georgina Whitaker, Mark Standen, Andy Standen, Jeremy & Ann, Tony & Tracy, Steve Jeanes, Steve Povey, Alan Matthews, Roy Sutton, Russell Parks, Jim Higgs, Katie & Abi Higgs, Rach Povey, Mikey, Nixi, Katie, Mick & Simon, John Ferris, Richard Green & Tamzin Barrett.