We hope you are well and you have enjoyed your Bank Holiday weekend ?
It has been a busy week for the team with another testing opportunity and a race weekend at Oulton Park.
We were hopeful this would be the first weekend that we would be running both machines with Alastair Seeley and Oliver Barr. Couragiously Oliver took the decision to let his foot heal for a further fortnight. Although his foot is repaired and feeling strong, he felt just a couple of weeks more would be beneficial with a long term view on his season.
The health of our riders is of paramount importance and we absolutely respected his decision and we are really looking forward to welcoming him back at our home at Donington park on May 17th, 18th & 19th.
Alastairs test day proved to be very useful. Alastair really enjoys riding around the undulating rollercoaster that is Oulton park. His record at the circuit speaks for itself and his knowledge of what he needs the bike to do was evident from the first turn of a wheel. The team used all three 25 minute sessions to explore a wide range of settings to give Alastair the feeling he needs. The lap times were not a consideration as each sector of the circuit was looked at in isolation.
On Saturday morning the race weekend had officially started and we had two further free practice sessions which could have a bearing on qualification should there be an iusse in the later schedule.
Due to the number of entrants into our class, 55 in total, the timed practice session were broken up into A & B groups. Alastair went out in group A onto a damp but trying track. As the session went on the track conditions did improve and Alastair increased his best to end session one as the fastest rider with a lap time of 1.46.26.
Session 2 later in the day and conditions were much improved, the temperature lifted and the track was dry throughout. In the better conditions the lap times got better and better as the session went on, Alastair recorded his strongest lap time of the weekend so far with a 1.38.21.
As we all debriefed on Saturday evening the mood in the camp was very positive. Alastair asked for a few more tweaks and the boys worked into the evening to make sure we were ready for Sundays qualification session.
The weather on Sunday was superb from very early on. As the bumper crowds of spectators streamed into Oulton it was a wash with shorts, t-shirts and shades.
Once more taking to the track in group A, Alastair timed his charge on the 20 minute session to perfection. Having only completed two laps he came in for his fresh rear tyre, moments before his fellow competitors did the same which would then give Alastair some clear track to work with. Using the clear track Alastair started to build his pace sector after sector to complete his best lap on lap 10 with a 1.38.25. This would be good enough for P4 in group A which resulted in P6 overall as only two riders went quicker in Group B.
Alastair took the grid at 17.15 in the late afternoon sunshine for his 12 lap Sprint race. The 6th place position on the grid gave he clear site of turn one and after a round of fists pumps the teams left the grid to setup camp on pit lane.
The lights were not on for long, the revs went up, the clutches were dropped and we were racing on home soil for the first time in 2024 !!
As the sped though the Britains section and made there up the hill before dropping into the Hizzys chicane Alastair was nudged wide with a strong but arguably harsh move from another competitor. Quick to react Alastair opted to use the run off road and he managed to stay on the bike. The run off has a series of bollards in place that you have to negotiate that prevents anyone gaining an advantage.
As he returned to the track he was in 23rd place. Using his vast racing experience, unfazed, he started to pick off riders lap after lap. Navigating traffic takes patience which Alastair has by the bucket load. Once past some slower competitors there were 1-2 second gaps in the pack which Alastair bridged with relative ease. As the chequered flag came out Alastair crossed the line in a very respectable 10th position. Very much the best of a bad job scenario and he did us all proud with his effort.
When his lid came off in parc ferme he was understandably frustrated but a few hugs later and some fluids on board the smiles came back.
Based on the dense field he had to overtake his lap times were slower than he wanted which would give us a 10th place grid spot for the 18 lap feature race on Bank Holiday Monday.
