The Biker Place

Massive Crash ends promising start to First R6 outing at Oulton Park.

After weeks of hard work we arrived at Oulton Park in good spirits. We had nearly finished the R6 and had only The rear TTx Ohlins Shock steering Damper and Stickers to finish, we cant afford the front suspension so were using standard.

Ridgey, Jay and i worked late into Thursday night to be ready for Friday,s Midday free practice. All went well, and Jay enjoyed his First ever dry Session on the bike Finishing 14th Fastest. He felt good with the bike and felt there was a lot of scope for faster times. The main thing was the bike through the speed trap was in the top 15 instead of bottom 5. His Time was a respectable 1.46.9 Just 1.4 sec of the leader having only ridden the bike once in the wet in road set up at Anglesy.

The first Qualifying session was marred by a red flag which seems to happen a lot in this series and by the time Jay came in, some riders were being allowed out again, in the confusion and hurry we didnt concentrate on changes and only had 5 mins left, We should have stiffened the font end, as Jay had started to speed up and was loosing feel from the front. He managed a 1.45.6 still in 14th place but a little further back in time now 1.8 sec of the Leader. After Jay stated ” i hav,nt even started to go fast mid corner yet and have loads more to go”. Again promising news on the speedtrap front, on the finish line speedtrap Jay was 4th fastest.

All we had to do was sort the front end for the dry.

Second qualifying on Saturday put paid to any chance of a dry set up, possibly the worst day to get anything done, the weather was changing by the minute, never mind the hour. It was terrible we ended up in the wet and nobody went any quicker. And stll no proper set up for the race if dry.

The Race : Jay got of to his first start on the bike dropping one place to 15th but within a lap had got up to 12th, all was looking good when tragedy struck at Island Bend, Jays first major High speed crash since 2005 and first in the dry in 2 years.

The Honda and the Suzuki which hes been riding for 2 years have a very tight short movement Gear selector, The R6 has a load of movement in it ! Hence coming down the gears out of island slowing from 150mph Jay couldt hook up 4th ran out of track and had to ditch at around 130mph.

We had over 30 Guest to come and see Jay that weekend and i thank you all for turning up on such a bad Day, However we must count our lucky stars Jay only suffered a bad beating and maybe a broken rib in his back. It could of been so much worse. The bike looked really bad but under close inspection, not as bad as first expected, still over a Thousand pounds worth but it could of been end of season for us.

Hopefully Jay and bike will be back fighting fit for Knockhill and then he can show just how quick he really is, Untill then hardwork again, no rest for the wicked as they say.

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