GT Superbikes

Archive for April, 2010

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the circuit of Pembrey hosted the opening round of the Termignoni Superstock 600 championship. With the weather delivering an early taste of summer as temperatures soared, it provided ideal conditions for some specatular racing throughout the Thundersport GB event.

We arrived at the Carmarthenshire circuit Thursday evening and began to set up and prepare for Friday’s testing. I spent the first two sessions getting comfortable with the bike, riding around and getting a feel for the track. The bike felt great right from the start, and I immediately started shaving my lap times, knocking on the door of the 1’01’s. We made a few minor adjustment after each session, making sutble changes to try and catch those few extra tenths. Unfortunately, on my fourth session out, I suffered quite a nasty crash at the Old Harpin. The back end locked up on the enterance to the corner and then highsided me on the exit, coming down very hard on the back of my head along with the bike flipping and landing on top of me.

The marshall’s were excellent and recongised the seriousness of the crash and red flagged the session immediately as the bike was still on the circuit.

The team worked extremely hard to repair the bike ready for Saturday’s racing, including trips back  to the Llantristant showroom to strip parts of other bikes. Although, I wasn’t feeling to great, as I suffered from quite bad whiplash, hip and ankle injures.

In qualifying, I intially struggled with my hip and ankle, finding it painful when trying to move around on the bike, but once I settled down and found a rhythm, it wasn’t so bad. As the session went on, I was starting to feel more pain each lap, and couldn’t match my testing pace, but still managed to qualify 13th, which I was happy with considering the circumstances.

Race 1 (Saturday)

I knew my first race was going to be very challenging, as I was struggling just to walk, and I had a 18 lap race to contend with. I got off the line fairly well, but was boxed out at the 1st harpin dropping me down to 14th. I started off quite slow, which allowed the group in front  to open a gap. As the race  started settle down, I was suprised to find I had much more mid-race pace than the group in front and started closing them down. Within 2-3 laps, I was on their tails, and started to make my way through the pack. I spent around 3 laps battling with them, unable to make a break, but eventually, I got to the front and had around 6 seconds of empty tarmac in front of me. I got my head down and started to gap the group behind, and in the meantine, was drastically closing the gap in front as well. By the last lap, I had shrunk the gap in front down to just over a second, but was too late to make a pass. I eventually crossed the line in 10th place.

Race 2 (Sunday)

Fortunately for myself, Sunday’s race format was slightly different from the previous day. Instead of one 18 lap race, it would now by two 12 lap races. This was better for me as I was seriously struggling with the injures I picked up in Friday’s crash and the longer race were proving very difficult.

This time, I had a better start, getting into 10th place through the first corner. I found myself in a battle for 10th place for the first few laps, but was trying hard to make a break before the group in front pulled a gap. I managed to make a break from the group behind and closed down the group in front. I knew I couldn’t spend as much time as I did in Race 1 to make my moves as the race was now much shorter, so I tried my best to cut through the pack with as little time as possible. On lap 8 I hit the front of the group, putting me in 8th position, but with no chance of 7th as he was around 8 seconds in front. I knew the group behind would be latching on to me, taking full advantage of any mistake I made so I got my head down I concentrated on opening up a gap. By the last lap, I managed to open up a 3 second gap which was reassuring as I was now really struggling to cope with the pain from my hip. I was still very happy to score my first top 10 in the new class, and achieved what I aimed to do before the weekend.

Race 3 (Sunday)

I come to terms with the fact I could no longer get the same lap times as I did on Friday testing with my injuries, so I had a talk with suspension expert, Chris Moore from MKW suspension and focused on making the bike easier to ride since I couldn’t ride as aggressively no more. It also helped me towards the end of the race so I wasn’t hurting so much.

This time, I had a lightening start off the grid, moving from 13th into 4th by the first corner. I managed to hold this for a couple of laps when two riders came past me putting me into 6th position. I held onto them for as long as I could, but I couldn’t quite match their pace. Then around mid-race, another rider passed me on the brakes into the first harpin. Again, I couldn’t match his lap time and he began to open a gap, but this is where the bike setup I went with paid off. I knew I couldn’t produce lightening quick lap times, so I focused on consistency and put in 6 laps within under 0.1 seconds of my fastest lap back to back. This allowed me to close the gap to him and on the very last corner of the last lap, I was able to take a big lunge up the inside to reclaim my 6th position across the line.

I would just like to say a massive thank you to GT Superbikes for providing me with a truely amazing bike and all my other sponsors who have supported me. Also, a huge thanks to all my friends and family would supported me over the weekend, helped to build my bike and gave me that little extra encouragement when I needed it.

Thanks for reading,
Greg #31

Thats right!!

Out of the blue , today arrived another black and silver 2010 model Kawasaki Z1000! now for a little shop like us that means we have TWO black and one brown ,white ones are still non existent but if you want a deal on one of those we have in stock CALL US NOW!!!!! We just have not got the room to store them all!

Seriously though;

For April we will put one on Demo, so if you want to see what the fuss is all about ,come and try it out.

The  new 2010 model kawasaki Z1000 is winning critical acclaim

it is superbly finished has sublime styling features with oodles of go to boot!

But don`t take my word for it give us a call ,book a ride ,and see for yourself!

For all things Kawasaki visit us at

www.gtsuperbikes.com

 GT Superbikes start this racing season sponsoring Greg James,who is 19 years old and from Tonypandy.

Greg will be racing in the televised Thundersport GB race series

the season starts at Pembrey on the 10th and 11th april,so if you fancy coming and cheering Greg along ,He will appreciate it!

Greg will be racing on a 2010 model Kawasaki ZX6r,supplied by GT Superbikes with a little help from Kawasaki themselves.                                Others who have helped Greg are Moto Direct (RST Leathers,Gloves,Boots and AGV helmet)  Putoline (oils,fluids and continuing support).PDQ for bike protection and advise,Skidmark for fairings and screens,Venhill for brake lines and hoses and quite a few others who have just helped with advice       we would like to thank you all!!

Greg has his own website: http://www.gregjames.co.uk/ why don`t you drop in and have a look

Looks like an intersting year ahead!

GOOD LUCK GREG!

See you all soon!

GT Superbikes

Ps;

Greg will be running his own column on this blog to keep you informed with his progress