Saturday – This was really not a good start for me for this weekend as about the fourth lap into the early morning practice session the front end of my bike tucked from underneath me and went sliding in the barriers at the bottom of the mountain.

Saturday Race – With my bike sorted and new fairings I set off in confidence. I had an average and soon got on the pace, but unfortunately, I was experiencing problems with my damper from my earlier crash which threw me off the pace a little but still managing a 4th place. During the second race, unfortunately I did not have a spare damper and therefore had to get on riding with the set up I had and enjoyed the race, especially through the woods and into the hairpin as I could skip the back end out more when I was hard on the breaks.

Sunday Race – Once again I had a pretty bad start. I got my head down and was chasing Ben Godfrey in front. I was coming out of Chris Curves and had a good drive and started charging around him going into the Gooseneck when the front right part of the tyre gave way and for the second time this weekend went sliding into the gravel. This was turning out to be a pretty unlucky weekend. However, after a great deal of assistance from many other riders in the paddock we had the bike back to standard with another set of new fairings and out for the second and third race. I had to start off the back of the grid in race 2 in 35th place and had a blistering start tearing through the fields. After about 5 laps I was was a few seconds off the back of the 3rd place group but was never quite able to bridge the gap. The third race of the day was better. My start was ok and I stayed with Kurt in 3rd place for a few laps until a 400cc machine came tearing past me on the straight and toeing Kurt along with him. From there I kept my position until I was mugged on the last lap by two 400cc machines. I passed one back into Barn and it was a race to the flag, but the eop end of the 400cc gave him the upper hand to the line making it a photo finish to the line.

Overall during the weekend I finished 3rd on Saturday and 5th on Sunday.

Matt #99