Grant went out for FP1 and with the condition dry but windy he got into a good rhythm making sure the bike was working well and just needed tweaking a little, he ended the session P11 only 1 second off the front guys.
Q1 With a couple of issue’s with suspension Grant went out with a slightly different setup, a new set of tyres & change of gearing Grant got his head down and put in a good lap early on, which put him around P6 so he decided to come in and change a couple of settings, with just over 15 minutes remaining. Grant went back out and went a little quicker but as the other riders had got much quicker he ended the session P11 again, just over a second off the pace. Grant was still having rear grip issues, so that night the team sat down and changed a couple of settings ready for the following session the next day.
Q2 Was on Sunday afternoon and with the weather conditions a little better, Grant was keen to improve on his time and position. Grant went nearly half a second quicker than the previous session but could not manage to string a good lap together as the bike didn’t quite feel his own and unfortunately he dropped to P19 at the end of the session which put him on the 5th row giving Grant a lot of work to do on race day!
Race day and with warm-up early in the morning and the race the last one of the day, it was just a matter of seeing what the weather would bring.
The race was here and the rain was pouring and due to the delays throughout the day our race was cut short by 2 laps which made it a 12 lap race.
Grant got off the line a little slow and got swamped on the first couple of laps, which he was struggling to get used to the wet conditions as he said he couldn’t see 5 metres in front of him due to the spray from the other bikes. Once everything had settled down he began to get some feeling from the suspension and the bike and got a wriggle on, but with 3 laps gone he had some work to do to even get to a point for the team, but he carried on going and as every lap went by he gained a position. Grant was determined to get into the points and by the end of the 12 lap race he finished in 10th position, which was a good ride considering the conditions and starting position.
Grant would especially like the thank Chip from Ashton Service Centre for all the hard work and massive input he has put in, towards helping produce a good bike for race day.
He would also like to thank his Dad, Girlfriend Laura & mechanic ‘Sam’ for all their running around over the weekend.
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