Chris Northover, 05/05/06 – 06/05/06
European SuperStock 600 Championship
Round 2
Summary
Good Luck, Bad Luck and Hayfever!
So round two of the European Superstock 600 series brings Monza and the opportunity to build on what was learnt in Valencia.
Thursday
Having suffered at the hands of Barry Burrell (fellow Brit racer) on the plane (I now know not to ever fall asleep next to him again) we arrived at the airport and I was offered a lift to the track with MCN’s World Superbikes reporter, Michael Guy. This turned out to be one of the luckiest breaks all season, as we got pretty much straight to the circuit while several others in the team spent many an hour touring the town of Monza in search of the illusive track, <smug mode on!>. Smug mode was, however, soon cancelled due to one teensy little problem with the location of the track. Monza is in a lovely big park. Lots of lovely trees, lovely little flowers and lovely, lovely grassy stuff. This abundance of green stuff left me with killer (well nearly) hayfever all weekend.
We walked the track Thursday night and concentrated on possible lines. Walking the track also showed me just how important slipstreaming was going to be, given the straights going on forever!
Friday – Free Practice
I took the first session easy to give me a chance to work out my lines and pick various braking/turn in/apex/exit points so I could fully apply the techniques bestowed upon me in Valencia! Also Monza is not a place to mess up, a point proved over the weekend by the many spent carcasses of race bikes laying bleeding oil into the gravel traps!
Friday – First Qualifying
For the second session on Friday, we were made to feel right at home again (yes, it rained!) and I had the new challenge of learning to ride a 600 in the rain! Again, building up gradually I started to get some consistent times in and find a flow around the circuit. About 6 minutes before the end of the session, I had a minor mishap exiting the first chicane, prima variante – see I learned some Italian! I got on the power exiting the turn a tad to eagerly and high sided, albeit not in the usual fashion! As the bike snapped sideways I half fell off the inside of it, then when it came back in line (amazingly still upright) I kept hold of the bars and simply (!?) hopped back on, much to the amusement of the marshals! Once I had finished giggling I realised I now had a new dent in my knee, but decided to make the most of the track time and carry on lapping until the end of the session.
Saturday – Second Qualifying
Headed to Doc Costa for some leg repairs to be made from my shenanigans in Friday’s qualifying, came out with a shiny bandage and less leg hair than before!
Determined to gain a good position on the grid, I went out with a few points from Mike that I need to work on clear in my head. Counter-steer more positively, a revised line into the first part of the Ascari chicane and get in the slipstream of people to get a good lap time. I managed to put all(ish) of the above into practice and spent a good amount of the session chasing the Marcel van Nieuwenhuizen of Remar Racing. Once I had caught and passed Marcel I set about pushing a bit harder in the places where I had been held up. Unfortunately the session was red flagged due to a bike on the track and we all had to pull into the pits. When the session was restarted for the final five minutes, ill fate struck again, when the circlip holding the gear lever in place went awol leaving me to limp back to the pits in 6th gear. Qualified a lowly 31st on the grid, my mission for the race was clear: good start, survive the first chicane and then pick people off lap by lap, easy. Well, easy in theory anyway!
Saturday – Race
Lining up on the grid, I was fully focussed on the task ahead, with the most important task being to survive the (inevitable) first corner carnage. After getting a good start and passing the row in front, I picked a line to the first bend and stuck to it. Sure enough, the pack just ahead of me felt the need to indulge in a bit of skittley pinball action and about 6 of them decided to better acquaint themselves with Monza’s finest black stuff. Having picked a way through the mess, I set off on stage two of the plan – start picking off riders in front. Coming out of Ascari, I slipstreamed a yellow Yamaha (sorry not very specific I know!) and made a pass on it into the Parabolica. Having got a wheel ahead, the kind chap riding the Yamaha decided to turn in on me and ram my front wheel from the side, most decent of him! As I tumbled through the gravel I was, well, mildly annoyed to say the least. As soon as everything had stopped bouncing I ran for my bike, picked it up and was out of the gravel trap quicker than a stray dog in a kebab shop kitchen! Just as I was preparing for a boring 9laps on my own, the red flags came out due to a bike throwing oil over the track and a there still being a rider on the floor from the first corner incident. Lucky or what?
On returning to the pits it was a race against time to do what essential repairs we could to make the bike a bit less like riding a shopping trolley with a wonky wheel. The foot peg was replaced, bodywork taped up, gravel removed from bike and gravel removed from me! It was quite a sight to see everyone helping to fix it, including:
- Uncle Richard (new record for the sprint across the paddock!)
- Mr Polita (Father of Alessandro Polita of Superstock 1000 brilliance and Alessia from last years Superstock 600 series)
- Eric from Suzuki Netherlands
- And Matt’s Dad Andy
THANKS GUYS!!!!
Saturday – Race (Take 2)
Lined up for the second attempt, I had to be cautious on the first few laps due to cold, dusty tyres. This was a little spirit breaking, as I managed another good start and then had to let the pack get away as I waited for my tyres to come up to temperature. After about a lap and a bit, the tyres were up to temperature and I was able to start racing! I passed a couple of bikes and then tagged on the back of a Kawasaki. I was struggling to find a way past, as however well I got out of the corners, the kwak would just disappear on the straights. With something still not quite straight on my bike, I was unable to go for any wild lunges on the brakes and didn’t manage to find a way past. In the end I had to settle for 22nd place. Although initially disappointed with 22nd, given the circumstances it is by no means a bad result.
What did I learn?
Well, for a start don’t trust anyone at all on the first lap, or you end up on the floor!
Secondly, remember some hayfever tablets!
And thirdly, Monza is an amazing place and probably one of my favourite tracks so far.
And there ends another horrendously long tale of the misdemeanours of myself in what is turning out to be one of the most exciting seasons of my life!
Tune in next time when I will be heading to Silverstone with a newly fettled engine and even more determination!!!
Thanks to –
- Michael Guy for his impeccable Italian Driving impressions
- Everyone who helped me in the pits on Saturday
- Roger for giving me the opportunity to get up to this much mischief!
- Nan and Grandad for driving the race truck up from Valencia
- Mark, Barry, Rich and Tom for making sure I stayed awake and revised on the plane!
- The lady at Stanstead Airport for sending me to the wrong car park at 10:00 at night in sandals and shorts. It’s ok, I only walked around lost for about 45mins!!
- Steve Jordan for making my bike work again!
- Mike “F†Edwards for getting my bike to the track
- All the teams sponsors and supporters
- All my friends and family who watched back home on the internet!
- Mum and Dad, sorry I smashed the bike up but thanks for everything
See y’all in Silverstone!