We were at Cadwell park for Round Three. I used the afternoon on Friday to get back in the swing of things and get a idea of how to get round on a 1000.

Saturday morning qualifying saw me qualify 3rd, behind two BSB guest riders but in front of all championship rivals.

Race one, I got away reasonably well, tried to stick with the two leaders and get away from the chasing pack but just didn’t feel comfortable and kept making mistakes.

I held third for the majority of the race and with three laps to go, trying to go around a back marker, he sat up and nearly ran me off the track.

Because I knew they were reasonably close I braked late into the next corner, so late that I couldn’t stop and ended up in the grass which allowed one rider through and I didn’t have time to catch up and try to get back past so had to settle for fourth.

Sunday morning saw mixed weather and I opted to go out in warm up for a lap to scrub the shine off of my wets in case the races were wet and a small error by me whilst changing wheels created a bit of an issue. It looked unlikely I was going to make race two but we resolved the issue with around three laps of the race before to go.

I then realised we had wets in and it had been dry for a while so a last minute swap to slicks and it was fingers crossed it didn’t rain. Got a good start and away in second, it was damp and patchy and my aim was to just get to the finish. Turned out pretty well in the end and despite several small showers of rain turning the track into an ice rink and people crashing all around I brought it home to win by 32 seconds

Race three, I planned to see how it went but not do anything silly and just bring it home. If I could get a podium, great, if not if made good points so take a finish. I was running second and then a false neutral into turn one meant I did some high speed grass tracking.

I rejoined the track on the back straight and dropped to 8th but fought back to third which was good damage limitation I guess. By my calculations, I think I now lead by 80 points but will wait for official confirmation on that. Mallory park next at the end of June

Massive thank you to all who have made this a possibility. Didn’t expect to start off quite so strongly but all good so far, hoping to just keep the ball rolling and momentum going.

Images courtesy of Colin Port Images