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.
The Story So Far...
Stuff from Superteens, Metrakit and Minimotos.
Niall's Blog
BSB, Mallory Park, 17/18/19 July 2009
I must be getting close to celebrity status as I was asked to sign a photograph by an autograph hunter and also participated in an interview for a local magazine that was being put together by trainee journalists...all in the space of a weekend. I have raced at Mallory a few times before but this was the first time I had to negotiate Gerrards' Chicane. I think I prefer the original layout as the chicane makes it a real stop - start circuit.
Chris 'Twiggy' Twigg came down on Saturday to help out with the bike setup. Chris has lots of experience as an ex racer and he is also currently working with the Jentin Superbike Team. I was having trouble with front wheel chatter running into Gerrards and after discussion with Twiggy the rear shock was removed from the bike for inspection. Twiggy thought there was far too much rebound damping and being a resourceful fella he managed to persuade Gary and Dave from Replicast to give a second opinion on our set up. Dave made a few adjustments and the handling was totally transformed during the next session. Big thanks to Gary, Dave and Twiggy for taking the time out to help me.
I didn't improve my time in Q2 but that was down to me for not attacking the chicanes at Gerrards and Edwinas aggressively enough. I was losing shedloads of time through the slow sections. I qualified 29th on the grid and was just hoping I could hold onto the coat tails of the riders in front. As it turned out I had a great race with Kasey Wyatt and Elliot Lodge. The three of us were together until lap 10 when Elliot retired with a technical problem.
Kasey and I were swapping positions almost every lap. I managed to make a break with about 4 laps to go and I was beginning to catch Tom Stanford. There were a number of retirements up ahead as I was moving up the leaderboard without passing anyone. On lap 18 I caught Tom and passed him under braking at the hairpin and managed to hold him off to take the chequered flag in 19th place. That was my best result of the season so far and hopefully I can make further progress at Brands Hatch in 3 week's time.
See ya.
Niall
