It felt like the season started properly this weekend! The forecast was good, or at least more normal than Donington, and it looked like we’d be racing in temperatures that weren’t freezing!
Brands Indy is a scratchy little track and our bike doesn’t really like that, we’ve often found ourselves chasing our tail quite a bit there in the past, so I wouldn’t say I was worried but it’s not a great circuit for us.
Conditions were half wet half dry for Friday’s first session and a few riders didn’t go out as the forecast was dry for the rest of the weekend. I was one of them and it wasn’t because I didn’t want to ride, I was itching to get out, but the problem is in those sort of conditions where it’s half wet and half dry you learn nothing.
When we finally got going in FP2, I felt good. We were fast straight away and that carried on throughout the weekend and we were pretty comfortable too. It would be a lie if I said it was simple or straightforward or easy or whatever, but at the same time it wasn’t neck on the line every single corner, every single lap. I’ve been in that situation before with our bike and paid the price for it, but this weekend we did the job we came here to do and left having scored decent points – more than anyone else except Leon who scored the same.
It was great to win in race one, Bradley proved really difficult to pass but I was lining up a move for the final couple of laps. I was almost disappointed when he made a mistake at Paddock Hill because it meant I didn’t get to try what I was planning!
Race two in the wet, I had a small issue earlier in the race and it took a while but I managed to resolve it! Once I had, I was already two seconds back on the leaders and had a good gap to the riders behind me, so figured it was best to play it safe and bring it home with some strong points as this time last year I was sat on my arse in a gravel trap!