Free Practice:

The weather was good and it looked like we were going to be in for a dry day.  I got out at the front so I had a clear track and could do my own thing.  I felt really good on the bike and it was handling really good.  I felt like I could put some fast lap times in.  I ended up 2^nd fastest.

Qualifying:

I got out at the front again so I could get my head down and get some good lap times in early on.  It was an exciting session because I was swapping places with Graeme.  I went fastest then he did then I got it back of him and it was like this for most of the session, but then I managed to put a good lap together to get me pole.  I did however feel that I could have perhaps improved on this again but I got held up going into the hairpin.  I was pleased with getting pole position though.

Race:

I was confident that I could get away at the front and have a good chance in winning the race.  About an hour before the race it started raining. I knew that we would be having a damp / wet race but I was still confident I could win it. 

As we were all lining up on the grid I saw that pole position was damp and the rest of the front row was mostly dry, I thought this would cause a problem, but as I set off to do the warm up lap it didn’t seem to affect it that much.  This made me think that maybe it would be ok.

As I came back to the grid to start the race I was focused on getting a good start and getting away clean.  I let the clutch out and thought I was going to get a good start but then it started to spin up on the wet patch that I had started on.  Then it bogged down and I knew that I had to get it on the dry part of the track so I did but by this time I had dropped down the field, after the first lap I was in 9^th place.  I was really disappointed with this and knew I had to get my head down and work really hard to get up the front to score some good points. 

I was picking them off one by one, then I was in 4^th and Tom and Midge Smart had about a 5 or 6 second gap on me, I didn’t know if I could make it up or not but I just kept my head down because if I was going to catch them I only had 3 or 4 laps to do it in.  I had closed the gap a bit but it was the last lap and they were still about 2 seconds in front of me.  I got right on the back of Midge going into the gooseneck and we both made a pass on Tom then I got past Midge going into Mansfield and managed to pull a gap on them going through the woodlands section in the end getting 2^nd place. 

I feel it’s a shame that I didn’t get away at the start because I might have been able to hang on to Graeme and run with him and then would have had a good chance in winning the race.  I’m confident I can go for the win at Silverstone or have a good chance anyway and be up there again.  Loving It!              

James Webb
#17