European Talent Cup
Round 3 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmelo
I was feeling quite anxious going into the third round of the European Talent Cup at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. After doing so well at round two where I qualified 4th and actually led the race before crashing out I was hoping I could be competing at the front again. I had raced here once before two years ago and I had lots of problems with the bike where it was cutting out and making me run on or crash, that was why I was feeling quite anxious.
During Thursday practices I concentrated on learning the track and setting my braking and turning in markers. I didn’t have my dad timing me as I didn’t want to get distracted from learning the track but I could tell I was doing ok as I was overtaking quite a few riders including Spanish riders who have been here before. With pray time finished I was able to have a really good track walk going over all my markers and the areas where I was struggling. We knew the weather would be similar on the Saturday for qualifying so I tried to put together all my markers and push a little harder than on the Thursday practice to see how my lap times compared. My times were good on old tyres but we knew I would have to find a bit of time for qualifying but I hoped with new tyres I would be able to find a second or so to qualify in the main group.
The weather was perfect for the two qualifying sessions. I was determined to do well and try and find over a second to qualify for the main race and to get into the main group that would be fighting for the points. The bike felt good but I just hadn’t got my confidence in the track yet to really push and whilst I did well finishing in 18th position in my group I was a bit disappointed. In the second qualifying session I was putting too much pressure on myself to qualify better and I was making mistakes being too tense. In the end I improved my lap times by nearly 1 second from the Friday practice but everyone had gone really fast and while I qualified for the race I was in 19th position in my group and 33rd for the race on the Sunday.
Gary and Michael worked hard to make some changes to the bike to give me more confidence and in the morning warm up it felt better but I knew I could make up more time if I just relaxed. With only one race in this round I was under a bit of pressure to get a good start to try and get as good a result as possible.
My starts have been shocking lately but I know what I was doing wrong and thankfully it worked out and although I didn’t make up any places I didn’t lose any for a change. I had a race long battle with six other riders for 32nd position, in the end I finished in 33rd which I was disappointed with. I have to be positive though that I wasn’t confident going into this round yet I still managed to qualify in 33rd position out of 60 riders and was ahead of two current Red Bull Rookies.
The next round of the European Talent Cup is at Motorland Aragon which I really liked when I raced there two years ago and I also had a practice there earlier this year so I’m hoping to do well. Aragon is over the weekend of 13-14th July and is likely to be really hot but first I have the next round of British Talent Cup at Donington so it’s going to be an exciting and busy month.
Thanks again to all my sponsors as without them I couldn’t be doing this championship and competing against the best riders from Europe and beyond.
Photos: Agustin Ubiola.