Assen
CAMERON STRONACH REPORTS ON ROUND TWO OF THE SUPERSTOCK 1000 FIM CUP AT ASSEN.
Day one of Assen and it poured with rain the night before so everything is still very wet when I awake at 7am. I cycle around the circuit at 8am after having some breakfast and the track is still wet in parts but is slowly drying out.
9am and the track is fairly dry with the wind blowing continuously and the sun popping out from the clouds every now and then. We head out onto the circuit for my first practice session. Straight away I like the track, but with damp patches on exits and entries to corners I have to take it easy. I stay out for the full amount of time and just try to learn the layout as much as I can. In the last minutes I come down the main straight and out of no-where I am hit hard by another rider. We come together on the main STRAIGHT and he bends my clutch lever away from my hand and up in the air. I head into turn one and cannot change down a gear I slowly do a lap and enter into the pits. The mechanics are quick to fix the lever and I head back out only to receive the chequered flag. I got some valuable track time in my first session but as far as set up goes.. it was useless, and we still have many things to try.
3.30pm and I prepare for my first qualifying session of 45minutes. The track is completely dry now and I can really start to push in and out of the corners. I love the track it is very fast and flowing and it feels very fast but still very safe and you can push quite hard. We have changed the gearing from morning practice and is much better but as I head through the fast kink the bike cuts out momentarily but affects my drive enormously. We enter the pits and my mechanics try to figure out why searching through the many electrical components without success. This delay takes a big chunk of time out of my session and without it fixed it also takes a big chunk out of my lap time. The gearing is still not perfect and I have to manage the best I can.
With the first session over we have many things to look at and am not where I want to be. I finish the session in 38th position. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully the we can solve all of our problems and improve our qualifying position.
SATURDAY
It is a cold morning with cloud cover. We have changed some settings on the front and rear suspension still trying to get the ZX10R to tip into the corners without the rear coming around and also altered the gearing before today’s 25 min practice session and have hopefully solved the bike cutting out mid corner. I head out onto the track and my first lap was fast and felt very comfortable but with only one lap down it starts to rain and I have to return to the pits, it really starts coming down setting in for the entire session. My mechanics change my tyres in pit lane and I head out for the first time on a 1000 in the rain. The first few laps I get a feel for the bike and the track, it is not long before I am comfortable and drop my times lap after lap topping the time sheets in some sectors for a little bit. I stay on the track the entire session and am quite happy in the rain just as the session finishes it slowly dries out and turns into quite a nice day. Unfortunately unless it rains for the race it is a session wasted, a session that I needed to use in the dry to find some good settings to get a good qualifying time.
16:50 It’s time to qualify and without having tested the settings I needed this morning it only leaves me 25mins to do so as well as post a good qualifying time for tomorrows race. I head out a do 4-5 laps on some tyres from Friday and the bike feels good but is till cutting out and I am loosing a lot of time on the last sector. I come in and we put a brand new set of tyres on and head out once more. The bike is good so I start to push, but we still have some handling problems and my suspension is too soft the rear is to light under brakes and the bike runs wide under power. I have to push hard with only a couple of minutes till the session is over, head down and I do the best I can I produce a good time, my fastest of the weekend so far but I know there is more with a better setup. I finish qualifying in 37th place with a time of 1:46.2 bit disappointed and if I had the morning session to try some settings I know I could go faster.
SUNDAY
Race day - we have a ten minute warm up and I have spoken with my team mate who has some of the same problems I do. We discuss gearing and again we change mine for the warm up as well as more suspension settings in the front forks. Warm up was good and all felt very comfortable with my fastest lap coming very early in the session, a 1:46.3. We are happy and confident for the race which is only an hour and 20mins away.
We have decided on the settings we will run for the race as well as the gearing which I feel is spot on and the bike has stopped cutting out which gives me more confidence.
Race begins and I get a shocking start and as we have many problems with the launch control but I have disconnected it for this race, but there is still a problem and I head into turn one more than 50 metres behind the field. Heading round the outside of 2 riders between turn one and turn two there is a big jam at the tight hairpin holding me up as I am tight on the ripple strip. I stay with a group of riders sitting right on the back of them and make some good laps and after being held up I move into about 35th position. Once passed these riders I can start pushing but as I head into the tight hairpin and the rear comes around on me before gripping and I have to sit the bike up and run into the gravel trap. All the riders go passed me and I have to start from last again trying to find a rythm, my next lap is my fastest of the race as I find myself with nobody around me and I can just focus on my riding. I try to push but we still have setup problems even with brand new tyres however I manage to catch and pass a couple of riders and many other riders crash out of the 13 lap race. There were some close moments throughout the race where I nearly high-side the bike but manage to bring it home unscathed. I finish the race in 27th position but after analysing the times and without running off and getting a good start it is possible to finish top 20.
Overall the team was happy and know that I have more to give as far as my riding goes. We will have to work harder next time and hopefully we can arrive a lot quicker with a good setup in Monza on 11th of may.