Cartagena Test 2009
February for 5 days in the sun to get to know the Honda RS125 that I'll be racing in the Relentless GP125 British Championship.
Honda RS125
is being provided by Kinpac Racing.
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Niall's Blog
KDMC, Knockhill, 5 April 2009
We made the relatively short hop to Knockhill for the first round of the KDMC championship. The idea was to try and iron out the engine gremlins that we suffered at Mallory so we took advantage of the Saturday test day. With new piston, crank and barrel to run in I was taking it easy in the first practice session.
Just six laps into the session the Honda stopped at the chicane. Back at the gazebo the problem was easily diagnosed. The studs had vibrated loose from the barrel which resulted in a loss of compression. We had no alternative but to use our spare barrel, unfortunately we ran out of time to make the second practice session. So on Sunday morning it was straight into qualifying.
The Honda was running well with the spare barrel and I qualified second, 0.4s behind Matthew Paulo. Although the sun was shining it was absolutely baltic with a really cold north easterly wind blowing. We again had plenty of support from Stewart, Malcolm, Jamie, Don, Scott and Gordon so I was determined to put on a good show.
In race one I didn’t get the perfect start and was about 0.5s down on Matthew as we crossed the line on Lap 1. The gap stayed pretty much constant throughout the race with Matthew taking the win and I was about 1s behind at the flag. In race two I made an even worse start and as a result I was held up from McIntyre’s through to the Chicane allowing Matthew to pull a gap. Matthew was riding really well and I wasn’t able to close the gap but he inexplicably ran wide at the hairpin on Lap 6 and suffered a low speed off into the gravel trap. This gifted me the win and an overall lead in the championship. Happy days!
See ya.
Niall
