Hi Guys,
Really difficult weekend in Assen which is a shame because I was feeling really feeling confident heading into round 4, I knew the track reasonably well having been there in 2009-2010.
Friday practice was fully wet conditions which I am usually strong in these conditions but we couldn’t seem to find a good setting with the bike and it was also first time using Pirelli tyre which was a handful in itself to get my head around.
Saturday practice was wet we made some good improvements. Leading into superpole the track was 80% dry, my choice was to go out on full slick tyres, the team decided against my decision and sent me out on intermediates, I did the out lap and then pitted because the track was dry its impossible to make the lap time on the intermediate tyre in the dry condition, I pitted and the team changed to slick, I went out and only had time for 2 laps.I was very disappointed in the teams decision and not to go with what I wanted, This cost me valuable dry track time which we needed leading into race 1, this was my first dry session in Assen and being superpole it is only 15 minutes so it was important to make as many laps as possible, which didn’t happen.
Race 1 was difficult, not having a dry setting or dry track time so I lost alot of time at the start of the race, learning different things about the circuit, braking markers etc. As the race went on I got a lot faster but ran into some set up issues along the way preventing me from pushing 100%. Finishing the race in 16th.
Sunday warm up we took what we learnt from Race 1 and made a big change in the right direction and went much faster first thing. Towards the end of the session I got taken out by another rider, lucky for me I walked away from that one without any damage, can’t say the same for the bike though.
Race 2, I was kitted up all ready to go, the pit lane was open and the mechanics were just doing the final once over on the bike after repairing it from warm up crash, Final step was to get the WSBK chief scrutineer to sign off on the bike so I could ride, He came straight and and looked at the bike and could see that the chassis was really bent so it would be impossible for me to ride the bike for safety reasons.
Very disappointing weekend for me with a little bad luck. Imola in a couple weeks and im hoping I can get some good results on the board for myself, fans and sponsors.
keep an eye on my Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for updates thanks
JH16