Season Best at Mallory Park - Greg James Racing #31

We turned up at Mallory Park to some questionable weather, with an ominous feel to what was looking to be a very wet and windy weekend. We woke up Friday morning to start the test day to a rain soaked circuit and very overcast skies.

We put the wet weather tyres in the bike headed out for my first test session. I took it relatively easy, to just scope out the circuit and to get a feel for the amount of grip. After having a couple of little slides, we backed off the suspension a touch to make it that little bit softer, which seemed to help a lot in my second session. Fortunately, just after half day, the strong winds helped dry the track and was dry enough to put the dry tyres back in and get some real testing done.

Bank Holiday Brands.

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Podiums at Aberdare Park.

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I started pushing hard to find my limits, which were worryingly, a long way off the front pace. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get my lap times down enough to even think about challenging the front runners, as I was lapping in the 57's. Although, both my front and rear tyres were questionable, as I had used them in previous rounds which may have been causing the lack of grip.

Qualifying
I headed out for qualifying with a brand new set of tyres on to try and find that extra grip which I had been lacking on the test day. I spent around 2 laps scrubbing the tyres in before getting my head down and setting some fast laps. I put one flying lap in to see on my pit board that I was currently running in 6th position, which I was quite surprised with as I thought I would be struggling for a top 10. I thought to myself that everyone wasn't up to full speed yet and was expecting to drop down the field as the laps ticked by. I made sure I got another two quick laps in before checking my pit board, to find out the next time I passed by I was now up to 3rd! Once again I though it won't be long before I get shuffled outside the top 10, so I made a point of checking my lap times to see if the pace had heated up yet. I couldn't believe it when I saw I was in the mid 55's, a full 2 seconds a lap faster than the day before, even though I didn't feel I was going faster. The new tyres made a massive difference to how much harder I could push.

I struggled with a few laps as I hit traffic in awkward parts of the track, but felt relatively safe on the front row but on my final lap of the session, I saw I had been bumped back to 5th place, and I only had 1 lap left! I gave it everything I had on my 19th and final lap and managed to take another half a second out of my time to take my first ever front row with a 55.3, just 0.2 off the lap record.

Race 1
I had a good start off the line, holding my 4th place into the first corner. I battled with the top 3 for awhile, when on-form Sam Middlemas came past pushing me back to 5th. I gave my everything to keep with the front pack, but was lacking just that extra 2 or 3 tenths per lap allowing them to slightly pull a gap. At about half race distance, the gap from the leading 4 had grown to around 3-4 seconds, but I was still trying to close it back down. Meanwhile, Nick Anderson was right on my case, matching me lap for lap and just sitting behind me for the most part of the race. I kept seeing +0.0 on my pit board and no matter what I did, could not shake him off. This was the first time where I was put under real pressure for a race distance so I was eager to see how I would cope. I made a point of getting good drive out of corners and braking as late as I could to prevent him passing me which seemed to pay off. Even though I couldn't not pull a gap on him, he also couldn't pass me. On the final lap, one of the front runners, Erol Ahmet, suffered an extremely high speed crash on the exit to Gerrards, promoting me to 4th place, which I held across the line to take my best result so far of the season and setting my best lap of 55.2. Fortunately, Erol and bike was relatively fine after the crash and was very lucky to escape serious injury considering he was travelling around 130mph when he departed from his machine.

Race 2
I bolted from the line to take 3rd into the first corner of the shirt tails of Seb Bulpin and Mark Hughes. I did my best to get a tow from these two, but they were setting blistering lap times from the word go, pulling a slight gap over the following group consisting of myself, Sam Middlemas, Erol Ahmet, Nick Anderson and Adam Robinson. Sam Middlemas came past and set the pace for the group in tow, but eventually broke away to join the fight for the lead up front. Meanwhile, Erol was putting me under a lot of pressure exiting Gerrards and down heading into the Edwina's chicane. I managed to hold him off for awhile, but an awesome dive on the brakes put him on the inside line and left me no option but to take position behind him. This time, I managed to keep with him and was looking for an opportunity to pass until Adam Robinson decided to join in the scrap with some clean, tough racing, which allowed Erol to pull a 1 second gap over us. I managed to fend off Adam on his triumph across the line by under half a second to take a 5th place.

Race 3
I had another good getaway off the line into 4th place and was set for another attempt of getting on the podium. I began setting fast lap times keeping with the leading bunch when the bike started to become extremely difficult to ride in certain corners with lack of grip becoming a serious issue on the long, fast corners such as Gerrards. I tried my best to preserve but physically couldn't get the rear tyre keep in contact with the floor giving me a lot of trouble. I dropped like a stone into the clutch of the group behind which passed me and pulled away before dropping to 8th place lapping only in the 57's, 2 seconds a lap slower than what I was going at the beginning of the race. We discovered after the race that my rear suspension unit had lost its pressure and lost adjustment in the rebound damping explaining my lack of grip.

I was disappointed that a great weekend ended on a low, but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the races.

Thanks for reading,
Greg #31