In the practice it went well. We were up with the top 10 again and very happy - we just needed to make a couple of adjustments.

I put the forks through 3mm instead of 5mm to steady the back up a bit because it was stepping out too much on the way into corners so this would help put wait on the back.

In qualifying it went quite good we got a promising place on the grid. I always struggle in qualifying more than the race - I don’t know why,  so for morning warm up I made more changes.

The other changes that I made worked well so I put the forks through flush with the yokes and it felt mint! I was so confident with the front end again for the first time in ages since and I knew we were in for a good race.

As the times in qualifying were so close, we knew that it would be like a train of bikes all race but that’s when it went wrong.

The lights went red, I was getting ready and I let the clutch out. Suddenly, the bike went forward and then stopped - I s**t myself and then, it happened.

The bikes behind me did well really but one hit me flat in the side of me. I felt instant pain and the bike fell on me. Luckily I managed to kick the bike off me with the other leg and tried to crawl to the side of the track but I couldn’t move because of the pain.

They stopped the race and after that I can’t remember much. I phased out and woke up in hospital were they said I had broken my leg and had bad swelling.

It was certainly a bad end to the season but now I have time to rest and hopefully come back stronger with a good team.

I would also like to thank all of the people that have helped me this year.

A big thank-you must go to Carole Nash, Automovative Darel and Jayne, GP Moto, Lenzkes GB Derek, One Stop Shop Gary and Kim, Sym and Kath, KBC Helmets, Revit Leathers & Wayne, Daytona Boots, Crescent Suzuki and Mark Rooney, Kais Performance, Andy White and Family, NGK Spark Plugs, Pump Hire Services, B&C Express, Direct Assets and finally, Mum, Dad, Girlfriend Lisa, Grandma and Grandad for putting up with me!

At Silverstone this weekend and it went well at the Friday practice, it looked good placing me in the top 7 place in the British Championship, the weather was also nice for a change.

After the practice I had some bad news my mate Kenny Gilberson that rides the Astro Kawasaki was very ill he had a hole in his arm from the last round and had to have it stitched. On Thursday (setup day) he had his stitches removed and his arm swelled right up, he was rushed straight back to hospital were they said he had septicaemia. Get well soon mate!

The day seemed to get worse, in qualifying on my 2nd lap going into the hairpin at the end of the straight, another rider came flat-out in to me and wrote my bike off, so I never got to qualify for the team.

We worked hard most of the night to get my bike ready for qualifying 2^nd. Finally got the bike ready and went out on it, it felt different so we made some changes but before you know it, the session was over. So not a good qualifying all in all, we had alot of work to do in the race. I made some big changes to get some more feel in the bike and it eventually paid-off, I finished in the top 10 and knocked a second off my qualifying time.

I am looking forward to Brands Hatch now, its the last race of the season and I’m hoping it is going to be a good one speak to you all soon.

Best wishes
HOWIE #43

Hiya all

What a bad weekend at Croft this weekend, Friday wasn’t looking good the bike just would not turn, so I knew we would have to make a lot of changes to it.

I have been dreading this weekend all year as I smashed my hand at the second chicane after the gearbox locked up on me last time.

I was hoping to have a better weekend here but that wasn’t the way it went after the first session the bike was bad, so we made the changes and it felt better but then the rain came just three laps in, I would have to wait until Saturday.

Saturday - session two qualifying, it was looking better but we couldn’t make the time we needed, the bike just wasn’t handling how we wanted it too. It could just not pull it into corners.

Sunday - race day, we changed the bike again but back to standard setting and it felt better but still not quite right. So we made more changes for the race.

It seemed to be going well but with just a couple of laps to go the backend stepped out and I ran straight on the grass, because it was wet I came straight off and had to retire from the race, all-in-all a bad weekend again.

Next round is at Silverstone and I like it there so I am looking forward to it!

Speak to you all soon

BEST WISHES
HOWIE #43

Its not been long since I last spoke to you but lots has happened. It was the World Superbikes at Donnington last weekend and I was there. I was also riding in the World Suzuki 750 Cup.

On the Thursday when we got there I couldn’t believe how laid back everyone is compared to the British scene and how the hospitalities looked. They were amazing, so much different to our paddock, everything is made to look like it is there all the time. To think it was a truck on Saturday morning is unreal.

Anyway, back to the racing. On the Friday we had lots of time to learn about the new bike, we were able to change the suspension setting to suit me. It was wet as well, so we needed to change the rear spring for a softer one making it easier to ride in the wet. The Adreani ohlins were really helpful and knew the bike well. The Suzuki crew were really good as well. They made us feel very welcome and we were well looked after.

At the end of the day it was our time to ride and it was wet, not just wet but flooded! I had new wets on, not the same as we use in our championship, so they took a little bit of getting used to, but after seven laps it was fine. The wets didn’t grip as well as our ones but were ok after lots of laps. The track was mega slippy and everyone was coming off.  My mechanic, Twiggy, told me to take it steady and if I get giddy to pull in and have a re-think instead of going too quick and coming off like everyone else. It paid off as I got up to second on the grid.

With five minutes to go they pulled me in and I sat in the pits for the remainder of the session. I ended up in fifth place. It was a very safe ride and we learned a little bit about the bike without any heroics.

The bike was geared for the Nürburgring, where Jeremy McWilliams rides the bike, so the gearing was way off. We made some changes to the bike for Saturday, but overnight it still hadn’t stopped raining and it carried on through the day. It got to our session at the end of the day and the rain had finally stopped and it was drying out, but still very wet, too wet for dry tyres.

I went out and did 3 to 5 laps at a time and had to keep coming in for a setup change. It was getting near the end of the session and they were still working on my bike, I had seven minutes to go to put a good time in, we kept going faster and faster but just not enough for the front row. The session ended and I was on the third row, but I wasn’t worried because I knew I had good pace.

Sunday arrived and the sun was out, hurray! We were suppose to be having our race at 2:30pm, but the Superbikes got delayed so we were the last race of the day again, and guess what…it rained again! It stopped just in time for our race and was drying slowly. It was going to be a greasy track.

The race got underway and I started well. Straight into the 1st corner in 3rd place, then down through Craner Curves into 1st. I just kept going for it and then 2 laps, in the Austrian rider came past, he was riding well and had a good pace. I tagged onto him and was hanging on. It got to 4 laps in and my team said I had a ride through penalty because I jumped the start. I know I didn’t but the officials said I did, so I had to do a ride through the pits at 60kmh which is slow after 150mph around a track. It put me in 14th place so I had to do all that hard work again in the space of 5 laps, and we did it, I finished in 6th place which was still a good ride in The World Championship. We knew it could have been a 2nd place easily as we were 3 seconds in front of 3rd place before pulling in for the ride through. Everyone thought I had done well.

To top the weekend off we had met loads of people and made some new friends including Hollyoaks star Stuart Manning. He is one cool geezer and loves bikes, so we had a real good chat. He came over to congratulate me at the end of the race. Thanks for your support mate! All in all what a good weekend.

Now I am looking forward to this weekend at Croft. We had some bad luck there last time, the gear box seized up in the bike at the 2nd corner and I smashed my hand, so I’m a little bit nervous going back there, but should be ok.

Speak to you all soon.

Best wishes

HOWIE #43

Hiya all

been to Cadwell this weekend what a hard weekend it’s been! At the test on Monday the bike felt good but when we got to the race weekend and we were trying to go 1.5 seconds faster than the test that’s when it began to get hard.

Every time we tried to go faster, the bike just wouldn’t let me. We changed almost everything on the bike, this wasn’t all we had a few other problems, the bike kept cutting out we found out that was just a switch gear on the bike, it was like it just wasn’t meant to be.

In the end we found a setting that we felt was the best one to go with but it still wasn’t quite like I wanted it to be. It made my job harder in the race because we had a bad qualifying, we had to come from quite far back in the race, I was going well in a good position until halfway into the race the rear shock over heated, luckily I managed to finish the race.

I was a little disappointed for the fact that I still haven’t mounted the podium yet but there is more to come, its only a matter of time before we get the right set. Now I have the world Superbike round to look forward to, I have been invited to ride in the world Suzuki 750 cup, I’m really looking forward to it, so speak to you all soon!

HOWIE #43

I’ve been testing today at Cadwell Park, what a morning!

We travelled down to Cadwell not knowing if we would get on track or not. We were first reserve, so if people didn’t turn up we could ride anyway. On the way down it was raining it had been all-night, hopefully that ment people wouldn’t turn up, luckly I was right and we got to test.

What a good test it was, after the disaster at Knock Hill we needed to get back on the bike and get some confidence back in the bike and for me to have some more time to set the bike up. Well we did just that; we tried a few different settings and think we have a good ball park setting in both the wet and dry.

So all-in-all looking forward to Cadwell this weekend, felling confident and hope we can gain much needed solid points so speak to you all soon

BEST WISHES
HOWIE #43

Well - what a weekend, one to forget - I think! It all started to go down hill from the minute we arrived, when the security man said. “There’s no room for you here”

Friday was sunny but not very warm, but it was ok. I didn’t really know the track, not been to Knockhill for at least 3 years, so the more time on the track the better.

In the first session we tried to stay out and learn the track better, we made some adjustments with Andy White from Kais. It was proving hard to get speed up, when you really didn’t know where you were going on the track.

The second session and qualifying came, it was still dry and we changed the bike abit, but only two laps in and the chain came off. So I rushed back to the pits for the team to sort it out. The team got the chain fitted with only 10 minutes to go, we only got about 5 laps in total. What a disaster, I ended up near the back of the grid - the worst we have ever qualified!

The race was to still to come - got to Saturday night and it rained the hardest rain I have every seen, it was like a river near the caravan.

Sunday morning and it was dry, then abit later on the heavens opened it started to rain so hard. I was nervous because I had so much work to do in the race. The race started and it was carnage, it was so hard to pass and the bike was uncomfortable to ride. 15 laps in and we were going backwards, we didn’t really find a setup. We retired for the second time ever in my career, so it was definitely a weekend to forget.

See you all at Cadwell Park in 2 weeks!

Best wishes

HOWIE #43

Hi all

It’s been a while since I last spoke to you, what an eventful weekend for the second time at Oulton Park, with its highs and lows on Thursday/set-up day; it was declared I would be riding in the Superbikes as well as the Superstocks!

I was so excited but nervous as we were still only on our stock bike. Friday came, our first practice at Superbikes, well I thought I would feel out of my depth but I didn’t - once I got out there. I’ve got to say the Ducati’s make you jump when they all of a sudden come up behind you, overall it was good for us for track time as you get 1 hour twice a day instead of just 25 minutes each day on the Superstocks, next session was the Superstocks, it got rained off so we didn’t go out.

Saturday qualifying - the rain was so on and off, so the team didn’t know what tyres to put on but luckily for qualifying it was dry and we qualified 28th out of 34 in Superbikes (on a standard bike) and 5th in the Superstocks.

It was looking like a good weekend we also had a race on Saturday night in the Superstocks, we were doing so well in 3rd place but we were still struggling with the brakes and ended up crashing, we got straight back on but had to start from last to come through to 20th place…gutted!

The 2nd race in Superstock was much more fun as we finished 5th place, what a race from 5th to 3rd place in a battle, none stop passing and full throttle all race. It was live so it was good for sponsors like Carole Nash, Lenzkes GB, Motul and Kais Performance. In the Superbikes we wasn’t so lucky as on the last lap I was lying in 19th place and the petrol ran out. We didn’t go out for the 2nd Superbikes because we couldn’t get the bike ready in time for the Superstock race.

Well hope to speak to you all soon hopefully with some good news, next round is Knockhill, Scotland 

All the best 

Howie #43

Hiya all

Well what an eventful weekend it has been at Snetterton, we were trying hard in practice so we could get a good early setup. We were not far away but that problem with the brakes came back to haunt us, I could only do about five laps tops, so it was hard to get a setup.

Andy at Kais Suspension was on holiday, so I was on the phone all the time to him to get the right info on the setup. It was going quite well not far off the fastest time, we ended up sat outside the top ten for the first time onboard the Lenzkes Cresent Suzuki. It wasn’t a problem as we knew we had good race pace and more to try in the morning warm up. We found more pace but the brake problem was still there, Cresent Suzuki got some brembo brake pads just ten minutes before I went out, just as the last brake caliper was fitted it was time to go.

We ended up 8th overall and not far off last year’s record which we were pleased with, it was a really good race as I was in a battle from 8th to 3rd place all the way!

The next race to come is at Oulton Park in four weeks time my home round as I call it (my house), so I am hoping we can get it up on the podium at least once as we have two races there.

It should be good, well I’ll speak to you all soon.

Best wishes

Howie #43  

Kais, the suspension Gods, altered the oil in the front forks to give a bit more damping as it has been said, I am a bit of an animal on the brakes, however it lost the ‘feel’ from the front end but we had time to get that sorted before second qualifying. We made some more changes ready for the second qualifying session, but then the rain started and we were not sure about how the front would be in the dry. We came away third in that wet session though, so that wasn’t too bad.

Race day warm up was sunny but really windy, which on a big open track like Donington can catch you out, but we had a good session and we decided the rear suspension still needed a bit of Kais magic working on it.

Come the race, the Carole Nash brolly girls got the full attention of the camera togs as normal and after we got going I realised that although the rear suspension adjustments had done their job, it had altered the weight distribution more to the front and made it a little harder when braking, but I eventually got used to it and managed to finish 9th and was running at the same pace as the leaders by then.

Snetterton next and I’m looking forward to that.

Hope to see some of you there.
Howie
#43