26th May 2001 - Snetterton

After my gradual improvement the last time I was here, a best of 1:28.43, and my new found confidence after the Brands Hatch GP round I though a day to remember where the track went would be useful. It would also give me a chance to fiddle with the suspension to see if I could fix the front end chatter through some of the faster corners.

Had to pick the bike up early form the Sanyo Honda team as they were rushing off to Donington with a wild card entry in the European SuperStock championship which meant they hadn't had time to sort out the bike. Oh well, it should be okay for another few races so I'll be seeing them once the weekend is over.

Tim Jones was there along with the usual Team Ixion crowd so it was as much a social event as a practice day. After his ride on the bike at Mallory Tim had a few suggestions as to how we could change the suspension. I had spoken to Mark Hammond at MH Racing who did the original suspension work but his suggestion involved hardening up the front to match the back but Tim reckoned that we should soften up the back to make it a little more like my road bike. Well, closer to how my road bike was before I sold it ;-)

The track was still damp for the first session and I hadn't finished unloading the van so I only managed a few laps right at the end. I have no idea what the lap times were as I hadn't even had time to refit the lap timer. The first break saw us adjusting the suspension and rushing to make the second session which came round all too quickly.

The rest of the day ended up being a bit of a blur but I ended up doing another two sessions in the afternoon. I skipped the final one as I was exhausted and felt that I'd made enough progress for one day.

I was very happy with the progress we made during the day as my increased confidence and the suspension changes meant that I knocked a full four seconds off my best lap time from the last race I had here. That means my previous best of 1:28.43 got rather blown away and I ended up with a 1:24.22 for all my hard work.