Sam Burman, a diary of a racer

Sam Burman, a diary of a racer - Bad Weather

Wednesday, 25 May 2011 08:30

The short time we had between the Oulton Park and Croft BSB meetings was spent preparing my bike. I completely stripped the engine just to make sure everything was perfect. Preparation is everything in sport.

Cold weather arrived for the third round of the British 125GP championship but practice day started off dry and bright. It didn’t last long though.

Just as we were about to head out on track it started raining.

I personally came in and swapped to wet tyres as did half the field. The others however had made the better choice by staying out on dry tyres as the rain stopped and the strong wind dried the track in lightening fast time. So I had to pit again as I didn’t want to ruin my one and only set of wet tyres [the budget is so tight this year we probably couldn’t have stretched to another set].

During the second practice I was lapping much faster than ever before. PB’s always make you feel so good and I was very motivated to walk the track that evening, with my team, to look at where I could improve even further.

I got up early on Saturday morning to cycle the track and become even more acquainted with the circuit. And it paid off. I improved by another 2.5 seconds in our first qualifying session.

With new tyres fitted I was really fired up for our second qualifying session. But I’d only done enough to scrub them in when we suffered a mechanical breakdown and I all I could do was watch from the pits as my name moved down the list on the timing screen.

So I had a busy night on Saturday, sorting out the primary drive gears which had broken up inside the engine cases.

Race day for the 125's started with a wet warm-up session. Then the weather changed and it was perfectly dry for the race. I got an awesome start and first lap, moving up through the field made me smile. I was enjoying having a decent ride moving up the field but was suffering with pain in my ankle from the recent crashes I’ve had. It made changing gear difficult and as the race went on I also started to hang on more and my arm pumped up. I just couldn’t make it work. My pace deteriorated and I was forced to retire.

So I was disappointed with that but I’ll take the positives that I achieved at Croft and take them to the next round at Thruxton on the 28-30 May where I’ll be ready to fight again! Sam..