E2E Racing News

28 July 2008

Another win @ Mallory Park

Lee wins the Sound of Thunder race at Mallory Park on Sunday, but it didn't all go to plan, Lee explains:

"It was really hot, must have been 30 degrees, and I was really struggling with rear end grip in qualifying. Round Gerards and the Devils Elbow the bike would not go as fast as I wanted it to without sliding constantly."

"Despite this I set my fastest lap ever round Mallory at 55.9 and qualified 9th on the grid, second in the SoT, behind Francis Williamson on the KTM RC8."

"Francis is a class rider with lots of experience, so I knew in the race it would be hard to beat him (he'd qualified half a second faster than me, which was not too daunting, as I knew if we could get some grip we could do low 55's."

"The race started and I was right on Francis's tail round Gerards, on the exit I pushed hard, determined to out brake him into Edwina's, I pulled off the move and passed him and another rider. On the next lap Francis tried the same move on me (which I thought was a bit of a brave move, as I was strong into Edwina's) - he out broke himself, collided with another rider and they both went down."

"I had to take avoiding action, but stayed on. At this point the leading pack of GP1 bikes had then gapped me, but with Francis out of the race and the other SoT bikes being at least a second a lap slower than me in qualifying, I knew if I set consistent lap times the race would be mine.

"On lap 7 the Norton ridden by Lee Dickenson came past me into Gerrads gushing water from the engine, I followed him into Edwina's and then he highsided coming out right in front of me, I just missed him, then the bike, then the bike of Ricky Snell as he collided with the spinning Norton. Both Rob Elsemere (GP1) and Lee Cutts-Bland (SoT) got passed me before I got back up to pace. I lost over 4 seconds on that lap and now had a race to take back the lead in the SoT."

"I caught Lee a lap later and then passed Rob, and started to try and get into a rhythm again. With the race being so long in hot temperatures I focused on doing low consistent 56's. Every lap at the Hairpin I was checking on the gap from Lee Cutts-Bland and could see I was gradually dropping him, I didn't realise Rob Elsemere had hooked on the back of me and was right on my tail. He passed me down the straight on the last lap and took 8th place on track from me. It did not effect my SoT class win, so I wasn't too bothered."

"Really trying race, totally shattered after it - the heat (temperature) and then the heat of incidents really took it out of me!."

Category: Racing News
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posted by The Team

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