The team arrived at Croft circuit late Thursday evening, feeling very confident with our previous result from Oulton Park.
Grant went out for FP1 on part worn wet tyres, as it had rained through the night. After a couple of laps getting used to the wet conditions, he then put in the fastest time of the session, which he could see on his pit board. He then decided to come into the pits, setting a good comfortable pace and the bike was working good, including the new clutch we put in for practice.
Q1 was later in the day and the track had dried up considerably, so Grant went out on brand new tyres, got them scrubbed in and began to attack, getting his head down. He was having rear grip issues and the gearing was a little out, so he decided to pit and change the gearing and a couple of tweaks on the suspension, and went back out. Grant got on the gas straight away in the remaining 8 minutes and posted a better lap time, consequently moving him up to 11th on the timesheet at the end of the session. Grant & the team were really pleased with his efforts and were now looking to improve further in Q2 the following day.
Q2 was also dry and Grant opted to only replace the rear tyre, as he felt happy with the front end. After changing the spring to try and enhance his rear grip levels, he wanted to do a back to back comparison. Grant was really struggling with the setup as the bike was moving around a fair bit more than before, so he came into the pits. He had a breather and made some suspension modifications and then went back out. Grant managed to improve his time and therefore moving him forward 1 position on the combined result at the end of the session. This would mean he would start the race from 10th position on the grid. This was a real confidence booster for everyone and with rain looking likely the next day, this was great.
Race day came and having had a good morning warm-up Grant was feeling confident for the race. Before the race it had rained slightly, so Grant and the team were unsure on the tyre choice. The race was delayed, this then gave us some time to think and the track to dry. Grant decided to go with full dry’s as the track was drying, and what a good choice it proved to be. With 2 warm-up laps Grant managed to get his tyres up to a good working temperature ready for the start.
The lights went out and Grant got a very good and clean start, and arrived at the first corner in 6th which he maintained throughout the first half of the race. He then dropped back a position but watched the rider in front and learnt where a good place to overtake was and then went for it as Grant felt the rider in front of him was slowing him down. He then moved into 5th position. As the race got closer towards the end. Grant kept an eye on his pit board and noticed he wasn’t pulling away from the group behind him, so he kept his cool and carried on with the consistent lap times and managed to catch a rider in front of him. The lad in front had made the wrong tyre choice for the duration of the race and with 2 laps to go he made the move into 4th position. Grant then got his head down for the final lap and managed to pull a slight advantage and put in his fastest lap of the race in (2nd fastest overall lap time in the race) and maintained 4th position across the line.
Grant was thrilled and so were the team, this was an excellent and well deserved 4th position and gathered fantastic point’s, 13 in fact which moved him into 12th in the championship.
Grant would once again like to thank Chip at Ashton Service Centre for his continued support of which proved to be a really big help towards achieving the result for the team.
Grant & the team would also like to welcome Bond-A-Band transmissions Limited on board.
Grant would also like to thank his parents Anna & Gordon, Girlfriend Laura and her family and also mechanic/helper Sam.
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