I had never been to this track before and was very excited to when it came to going out there and learning a new track.
I walked round it early thursday evening, just so that I knew where I was going, it looked very fast and quite lumpy.
On friday free practice 1, I cruised around for a good few laps so that I could get the hang of the bends without doing anything stupid, I started to get the hang of things and tagged on to a few riders for as long as possible so that I could see what they were doing. I really liked the fast near enough flat out right hander, it really was a thrill and also a few people took quite a few nasty spills!
In the second free practice session I had a great time again and knocked off a lot of time to my previous best from free practice 1, which I was pleased to hear.
The next day we decided to change the gearing and take a tooth off because the bike was revving out too much down the back straight, I found this helped and did me a favor, after about 5 laps into the session a faster rider came past me and I decided to try and go with him, I did so and it really helped my times and helped me learn a few things here and there around the track. We came up to a group of slower riders and I unfortunately found it hard to try and get around them and stay with the faster rider, so I pulled in and I needed to anyway because the bike was running a little bit too hot, as I went back out there was a nasty crash at the fast right hander I liked and the session was red flagged which meant we all had to pull in whilst the injured rider was recovered safely. We all went roaring back out and I didnt manage to better my time but came close to it, I was really happy and ended up 21st fastest.
In the second qualifying session I didnt manage to go any quicker which was a shame because even if I had gone a second quicker it would have moved me up another row or two, I qualified 30th in the end but I moved up 2 places because one rider had unfortunatley broken their collarbone and another unluckily had to start from the back of the grid because they failed to do the warm up lap because their chain fell off. which coincidently put me 28th on the grid again!
In the race I was really determined to make up a good few places and was aiming for the top 15 at least, the lights went out and I got a good start, I passed a lot of riders and by the final chicane I was up to about 17th-18th!
As I broke for the final chicane I passed two riders and then started to go down the gears as the bend tightend up, as I was doing this the bike wiggled a bit strangely, I then changed down another gear as I usualy do and the bike completely locked up sideways, I didnt have time to do anything or try and stop myself from crashing, it was as if the bike had decided for itself that it didn’t want me on it any more, as if it was saying “Go away I dont think I want you sitting on me any more, see ya later!” And then I was catapulted through the air apparently about 10-15 foot high, I remember seeing tarmac, tarmac, “oh dear red,blue and white rumble strips!” I hit the ground hard, slid on my head and shoulder, then on my left leg and bum, I slid up the rumble and stopped, I remember feeling this very sharp pain in my left leg, I didnt really know what had happened, I looked around to make sure I wasnt lying in the middle of the track because I wasn’t particularly in the mood to be run over by a bunch of oncoming screaming 125s! I then noticed that I was laying on the rumble strip and I panicked a bit because of the sharp pain in my left leg, I couldnt move it, which worried me because that made me think that I had broken it, amazingly I hadnt, the marshals and a paramedic came running over and rolled me onto a stretcher, whilst the safety car was out, I then said I want to try and walk to the ambulance, I did so and limped to the ambulance with two marshals next to me.
I came away very lucky with cuts and bruses on my legs and shoulder, whereas the bike was in a totaly different state, I guess it later found out that no, it could not ride the race with out me and think that it could get away with throwing me supermanning through the air!
I don’t honestly understand what I actualy did wrong, at first I thought some one had hit me, but it had appeared not after I saw the tv footage and asked a few people who saw it, so then I thought perhaps I downshifted too fast, some people agreed with me, whereas others didn’t, because the team said the bike blew up, but they didn’t say that’s why I crashed though, they said when it landed it broke all the throttle body and that the throttle got smashed wide open when it landed violently, well they said something along those lines, but I know that it definitely blew up, because that is apparently the most likely place for when a GP 125 is most likely to seize because you have just come screaming down the back straight and then hard on the brakes and off the throttle for the corner and they apparently lean up and seize after a long straight and when off the gas after a long back straight. so now I begin to think that perhaps it was not my fault and maybe the bike did seize up when I was going into that corner, some people think this too perhaps we are right, perhaps we are not, but that’s what I believe.
I came away battered bruised and cut, but luckily nothing broke which I was most glad about.
