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Round 4
3/5 May 2003
Oulton Park
The weekend started out well, as I was just under two seconds quicker than the second place rider in the practice session. There had been few changes to the circuit and I adapted to them well. During qualifying I had been in third place for ages when I saw the ‘2 minutes left’ board. This meant I had time to do one final qualifying lap that I knew was going to be quick. Just as I came into the last corner the red flags came out and they had to stop the session, which consequently meant that my fast lap didn’t count. I later found out that I was one second up at the second sector of the circuit.
Oulton Park is one of my favourite circuits so I was looking forward to the race. I got a good start going into the first corner but I got edged out by another rider which dropped me to fifth. Immediately I moved into fourth but Kieran Clarke had made an early break with Peter Ward and Benjie. I was happy to follow them knowing I had a game plan.
I started to put the pressure on Benjie which became too much for him and he made a mistake which allowed me to move into third place. Kieran also made a mistake so I pounced and moved into second behind Peter Ward. I knew I was able to past Peter on the penultimate lap pulling just over a second on him every lap. As we came round on the penultimate lap a few rain spots on my visor appeared, but the track was not at all slippy. I took the lead and continued towards the other side of the circuit where there was glorious sunshine.
On the last lap there were a few more rain spots but the track appeared to still be dry. Unfortunately it had rained a lot on that part of the circuit since the previous lap and I crashed, only one and a half mile away from the finish. It was just bad luck for me that I reached the rain first which allowed the other riders to be cautious. Kieran Clarke also crashed which allowed Peter Ward to take another victory by picking up the pieces.
I was disappointed to not win the race but pleased that I had set another lap record!
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