Having only collected his Yamaha R6 on Tuesday before the race weekend, it was inevitable that Robbie would suffer some teething problems at the first round at Brands Hatch.

Having only qualified 24th, Robbie knew it was going to be a tricky race to scramble some points together. Over the weekend the team worked very hard to eliminate teething problems with the bike, which seemed to be an endless task. Only hours after qualifying, they found issues with the rear shock which would make the bike extremely unstable, exactly as Robbie was describing during qualifying. With a little help from K-Tech, the shock was fixed and placed back into the bike with a little time to spare.

Robbie head out to warm-up, and things were looking and feeling really good for him, he was lapping consistently quick and managed to secure 12th in the session.
Looking on to the race, Robbie was rearing to go and the bike was set to compete. He lined up on the grid and things were looking up. He got an average start, but lost his position and finished the first lap in 28th. Realising he had a huge amount of work to do, Robbie started passing people and seemed to look comfortable, however it was soon very apparent that Robbie was struggling with grip, almost high siding out of every corner. He was lapping slower than in warm-up, but still seemed to be struggling.
Robbie fought and fought and finished the race in a creditable 18th position, 5th in the Supersport cup.
Over to Robbie:

"Well what can I say about this weekend? It’s been completely up and down and the team haven’t stopped working on the bike, so the credit has to go to them. Having only ridden the bike on Friday, I knew it wasn’t going to be the best of weekends, but we set ourselves a target of a top 20 finish, top 15 if things were looking up. We had no end of problems with the suspension over the weekend, but once we knew exactly what the problem was, it was fixed almost immediately.
After warm-up, I was really looking forward to the race as I knew I would have the pace to run easily in the top 20. For the race, we made the decision to run hard front and rear tyres, hoping that towards the end of the race they would come good and I would be able to make a move forward, as I always seem to have a better second part of the race. This was not meant to be, we since found out that the tyres were almost always used for testing purposes and that we were the only team with this combination of tyre, even the Pirelli technician said we wouldn’t have any grip in the race. It was exactly that! The bike was spinning everywhere, and I just couldn’t match other bikes out of the corners. I went quicker in warm-up than in the race, and it was physically easier to do in warm-up also. Still, I am not moaning as it’s a solid top 20 result, and also 5th in the cup so for us it’s a good start considering the off-season we had. I am just grateful to be on track!

All in all, the weekend has been a complete success, we managed to assess the bike and get some valuable data thanks to Steve Booker. Every session out the bike was feeling better and now I am confident of some top 10 finishes this season. The bike feels awesome and now that we have a base setting, I feel much happier as we can just get on the thing and ride it, almost!
My fitness is tip top, I only completed 2 test days on a standard machine before this weekend, but I was surprised how good I felt. The races were much longer than Superstock in 2008, but physically and mentally, I was ready and felt good. At least the hundreds of hours of training paid off!"

So now it’s a short break, where I hope to get another couple of test days in to further gain knowledge on the machine. I just can’t wait to ride it again. Roll on Oulton!!!"

Now we have a 2 week break ahead of Round 2 of the British Superbike series at Oulton Park where Robbie hopes to hit the ground running ready for hopefully a top 10 result. Keep an eye on the website for more updates over the rest period.

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