Round 7...not giving up!
After the Motogp round at Silverstone there was only a week between rounds so I stayed in the UK with the brilliant Dexter family for the week. Got some good training in ready for Thruxton. It felt really good to be back at the track for round 7 and I was really looking forward to this round as I truly enjoy the circuit. The entire track is just about fully flat out with average speeds over 100 and super bumpy which doesn't really bother me at all. I like the bike moving around all over the place so this track suits my riding style very well. The track really commends all of your physical and mental capacity to go fast around it and I was prepared to do just that.
Friday was a decent day. The bike felt really good underneath me but I needed to make some improvements with my riding before doing anything else to the motorcycle. Got a bit of a slap on the hand for an over adventurous pass on another rider in the beginning of FP1 but full focus was now on qualifying in the morning. I felt really good going into the qualifying but the weather had a mind of its own. The session started off 50/50 so I went out on scrubbed slicks but it started to rain so I pulled in for wets but this meant the end of my qualifying because I wouldn't be able to go faster in the wet then my dry time. The sun pierced through the clouds and dried the track out for the last 10 mins of the session and I was able to put in a half decent lap to put me P10. Not the best qualifying but much better then where I would've been if I didn't go back out. Qualifying is still a skill I need to learn and we are figuring it out each round.
Going into race 1 I wasn't feeling the best, I had a lot of things going through my head and it was very difficult for me to concentrate on the job ahead. I had been having this kind of thing happen to me before but I have been able to overcome it but this time was much harder than before. Got a really good start and made many moves in the first couple of corners, up to p5 but unfortunately the lead group got a gap to me and the group behind and I got swallowed on the back straight. This was the end of my race because I was trapped in the group that I know I shouldn't be in. I finished the race p11 after a hectic last lap but I quickly put the race behind me and got ready for race 2 the next day. This mental game I struggling with is really starting to put a damper on my season. But Race 2 is up next and I need to be ready.
Again just like before the start of race 1, I had tons of things going through my head when it shouldn't have and I couldn't stop it. But just like race 1 I had another amazing start and almost made the pass for p5 going into turn 3 but couldn't and got trapped in the group AGAIN! Now my race was over again because I couldn't get into the lead group where I belong. These little bikes require a ton of corner speed to keep the momentum moving forward and having other slower riders blocking lines, drafting past you and holding up the lap times makes the gap to the lead group almost impossible to make up. You get stuck battling for the most points you can vs podium battles. The last chicane was very poor for me, a rider from the inside blew their brake marker and was a bit too ambitious and hit me which caused me to stand the bike up and was forced to finish P11 again. This isn't where I belong and I know this. So what now...I drop further in the championship standings and I know what the problem is...how do I fix so I can get back to having fun and focusing on my tasks?
