July was a very busy month for me, and the In Competition Aprilia team. We were at Knockhill at the start of the month for a brilliant weekend and catching up with the fans and sponsors. We left Knockhill with fifth positions. We could probably have done better but for a bit of bad luck in both races but P5 is still good points for the championship and good results from my home round in Scotland.
Donington Park was next as a support race for the WoldSBK round and we struggled a bit with he bike setup after the one practice and qualifying giving very limited track time. The team worked hard and made a lot of changes to the bike for the race but we had a problem with the gears and I was forced to retire after just 4 laps which is always a bit disappointing.
Snetterton started as a good weekend making a lot of progress with the bike following the Donington outing. The team were fantastic and I can’t fault their support in the slightest.
By qualifying we had knocked chunks out of my laps times so we were moving forward and by the time the race came around I was feeling very confident in myself and the bike. I got a great start getting up into third position and battling around 4th until we had a small problem on the bike that made me drop back and finish 10th. That’s not where I wanted to finish and I know we have the capability to have done a lot better into the top 5 or even a podium.
Overall it was a good weekend as we took a lot of time off my Thruxton lap times achieving personal bests in the race.
In between it all I’e been riding motocross at Duns and out on the mountain bikes keeping myself in shape and making sure I get a lot of bike time in.
In early August we’ll be back in action at Thruxton. It’s a fast flowing track that I enjoy and hope to get back into the action at the top of the time sheets.