Deer Leap, Oulton Park 2019. 

Richard Spencer-Fleet behind me. If you read my previous post I mentioned someone trying to pass me here in race two. I have worked out from the timing sheets and position charts it was Spence who tried to sneak past on lap two of this race. 

First crash of the 2018 season this weekend. Had a few close calls recently as I’ve been pushing fairly hard to make progress. Final race of the weekend and I took it just a little too far. 

I’ve scored points at every National meeting this year apart from one and on Sunday I felt like I had the pace to push for a top ten in the dry. The bike was feeling good and I’d changed gearing to try and control the rear wheel slides onto the start finish straight at Silverstone. I was struggling in sector three during qualifying and the race on Saturday but Sunday my sector time improved. 

After 9 laps of consistent lap times I tried to reel in the bikes in front of me. I was in 14th when I went down but the group in front felt within my reach with five laps to go so I had to try. I tried to brake a little deeper through Maggots and into Becketts but it was too much to ask of the front tyre and down I went as I started to turn in. 

In terms of crashes it was fast (ish) but fairly gentle. The circuit was kind to me and the bike and we just slid. I felt like I was already up on my feet and the bike was still sliding away from me. My main concern was that the bike was still running and on its side so a short sprint to turn it off was my main priority to kill the engine. The 959 doesn't like to run like that and the bearings will pick-up if starved of oil. 

Crash protection and leathers all did their job. I actually rode the bike back to the paddock and if the rules had allowed I would have been able to continue to race the bike. Not bad for a 3rd gear crash.