Well, after the last two rounds at Monza and Kyalami the title race and the pressure is certainly getting to some people.

At Assen where Eugene won for us Fabien Foret’s tactics against his own team mate Cal Crutchlow were unbelievable. Although it could be said that Cal beat himself with his bad start he had got himself back into contention to battle for the lead with Eugene and Joan Lascorz again before Foret arrived on the scene to send them both out of contention with what can only be described as ill planned moves. Fair play to Cal on that day to get back in the hunt for the win with Eugene and Lascorz. Eugene though rode a fantastic last lap to win our second race of the year. Once again I can only praise our whole team for a superb job.

On that front we have had two changes of staff which has worked very well for us. I would like to thank the two departing members Mark Beeton and Danny Horne for their efforts but in both cases the time away and the demanding schedule was not really working out for them. We had two stand-in staff members for Assen in Graeme Parker as Eugene’s chassis technician and Ben Fry’s dad Chris. I think it showed once again what an unbelievable team spirit we have to pull out that fantastic result amongst the changes. We now have two new team members in Phil Roe as truck driver and chassis technician for Eugene and Carl Meakin (Stan) as chassis technician for Miguel - and no offence against the departing staff but our team now has gone up another level.

Moving on to Monza which is a track where it is always hard to make a break due to the slip streaming down the long straights. Eugene qualified on the front row in fourth and we were well set for another battle with Cal for the win. The race started and when it all settled down sure enough Eugene and Cal were there along with Foret. Lascorz had dropped back by over 2 seconds and should have been out of the fight for the win. In the space of a few corners Foret put what can only be described as very surprising passes for an experienced ex World Champion. Into Parabolica when he should have had the sense to not pass when he went into the corner we could see him brake then let them off and run both himself and Eugene into the corner too deep allowing Cal to get away a little. I was so surprised he did not stay in behind and draft down the straight and bring them both onto Cal and maybe even have overtaken him. Eugene got him back but then Foret put an even more outrageous pass on Eugene, block passing him into the second chicane. This allowed Cal to clear off by a couple of seconds whilst all these moves were going on and just to add salt into the wounds also allowed Lascorz to close in the them. In the end Lascorz ran Eugene deep at the start of the last lap into the 1^st chicane and he could not recover and finished 4^th. I think it says a lot about how far we have come this year when this was actually quite disappointing for all of us. A mention here for Miguel who after two disappointing performances for him got back into the points again with a hard fought 12^th place. It has been hard for him this year as the pace is so much quicker but he showed what a good package he also has coming from behind to get this result.

So after packing our crates in a hurry we were in South Africa just a few days later for the round we had last weekend. Ten Kate were the only Supersport team to have tested here but to our advantage they took the last chicane out of the track and made it a right hander as it was before. Only one corner change but at least their advantage was a little less. As it turned out we all caught them up real quick and in the end it was Crutchlow on pole from Eugene and they were the only two riders under 1.41 for the lap. Then we had that time disallowed as Eugene had on inspection missed the end of the session by less than 2 hundredths of a second. So it was then Crutchlow, Sofuoglu, Eugene and Pitt on the front row. Getting back to our friend Foret his head had nearly fell off after he was offended by the true statement I made about a ex World Champion having forgotten all track craft in Monza, then the final straw for him was Cal inviting Eugene round for some pasta in the Yamaha tent in between sessions. Another person showing the strain was the crew chief for Sofuoglu - Brains and I were walking down the front of the garages and stopped to look outside Ten Kate. We were just chatting away about how they were running the ABS spec bikes and we are not when he came out of the garage ranting about how this is World Championship racing and we should not be there. Well I have to say recently Ten Kate mechanics are often standing outside our garage and as a fellow Honda supported team they are welcome. Anyway, the next morning he came along with all his Supersport team and stood outside our garage. Brains asked them if they would like to come in but they just left. Oh well, we can’t please everyone. It is small change to me and his boss Ronald Ten Kate and I had a good laugh about it, so no problem.

Getting down to the race I believed that there were only two riders who really had the pace which were Eugene and Cal. With the nature of this track unless other riders got away before them they were half a second a lap faster than the rest. Eugene got away well and soon passed Sofuoglu and pulled away. Cal was back in 6^th and by the time he got to second Eugene was 4 seconds down the road. Cal put up a good fight but Eugene rode a great controlled race to win by 2.5 seconds. Foret crashed out of 3^rd and Aitchinson took the last podium position a full 17 seconds back.

I know the rest of this year will be hard and we still have to claw back the 13 points we are adrift of Cal but I would like to end by once again paying tribute to our whole team. Boys you are just the best and for a relatively small team like us to be fighting for the title makes me so proud and is testament to all your efforts.

See you next time

Simon