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Round 01
26/28 March 2005
Brands Hatch (Indy)
It seems ages since the last round at Donington last season and it had felt like forever waiting for the first round to arrive. The first race was always going to be hard with such tough competition again this season, as well as riding the new bike for the first time.
The team worked really hard to get the bikes to the best possible standard for the first round and it was obvious they had done a good job when I was 6 th and then 3 rd in the two practice session on Saturday. However, qualifying didn't work out quite as we'd planned and I was disappointed with only finishing ninth in the second session. A sensor on the electronics burnt out which meant I only had 75% power and with a few suspension problems things didn't go to plan.
I was nervous for the race, as everyone was, but as I sat on the grid ready to start I felt confident. I managed to get a decent start and went to fifth only to be pushed out wide and came round to finish the first lap in tenth place. There was a lot of hard battling between eight riders battling to get to the front of the pack.
I was enjoying the battle and I was sitting comfortably near the back of the bunch. I could see I had a good tyre left and I could make some moves later in the race as they were holding each other up. On lap fourteen I got held up by a back marker and lost a second to the group but was back with them on lap seventeen. I started to make a move to the front of the pack and managed to pass Leon Camier.
Unfortunately on lap eighteen Eugene Laverty clipped the back of Rob Frost's bike and knocked him off and whilst trying to avoid him he also then clipped me which caused me to go down at Clearways. It was an unfortunate racing incident and these things happen in racing so there are no hard feelings.
I was very disappointed as I knew I could get to the front of that group and push for the last podium place which in the end went to my team mate Craig Jones.
I am now really looking forward to Thruxton and will be fighting for a podium position there.
Cheers
Cal |
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