We arrived at Silverstone with good spirits and feeling confident for the weekend ahead.
Free practice was wet and with quiet a different setup in the bike Grant and the team where feeling very optimistic of how it would feel and perform. Grant loves the wet weather as it seems to suit his style more as its key to being smooth and relaxed. Straight away Grant felt like the balance of the bike was much better and enabled him to feed the gas on earlier once exiting the turns.
This powered Grant up to 5th position and with the weather changing every minute on the 2minute plus circuit, it was very difficult to judge the conditions. At the end of the session and on Grant last lap he moved up into 3rd position. This was very encouraging for Grant and the team as they knew the bike worked well in the wet, not to try it in the dry.
Qualifying 1 was in the afternoon and with the weather a lot better, it was going to be a fully dry session.
Grant went out on track and throughout the session made some adjustments to the bike to try help the bike to turn a little quicker but he was still struggling to do so.
Overall Grant ending up qualifying in 17th position which was unfortunate as he was on a faster lap 40 seconds from the end of the session but it got red flagged so he could not complete his lap.
The race was here and with Grant raring to go and desperate on making a great start, this is what he did. At the end of the first lap Grant was up to 11th position and trying to make sure he did not lose the leading group in front. Grant was struggling down the straight to keep up and this led to a rider passing him causing Grant to lose touch with the group. This was very frustrating for Grant as he felt he could have gone with the group in front if only he had the top end speed. This left Grant in a battle for 11th position. He got to the front of the pack and tried to open up a gap and give himself some breathing space but with 3 laps to go Grant got passed and pushed back to 12th position. Yet again he was passed down the straight and by the end of the race he couldn’t manage to find a place to pass and had to settle for 12th position.
This was very disappointing for Grant as he expected to go better in the race, although the result meant Grant jumped up to 10th place in the championship heading into the final round at Brands Hatch on the 18 – 20 October.
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 Tyre warmers
General Banner Company
Springfield Cleaning Services Ltd
Thank-you to all the 79 club members & people who attended over the weekend for your help and support including:
Laura – my girlfriend, Gordon – my dad, Georgina, Sam Black, Steve Jeanes, Mark + Andy Standen, Jim + Katie Higgs, and absent 79 club members.
A special thank-you to Steve Jeanes, Mark Standen and Laura Standen for their superb cooking.
Also thanks to Nick from Kais Suspension for your help
The winner of the 79 club who will win 2 VIP tickets to the FINAL round at Brands Hatch is:
No. 21 Russell Parks (RSP Building Services, Brighton)
If any members are attending the final round at Brands Hatch and would like food in the team hospitality area then please can you contact Laura Standen on 07554 016 982 or consequently me on 07935 936 441.
See you there!!!