I managed to get out on track for the second free practice but the bike was all over the place, so we knew that we had a lot of work to do on the Saturday as because it was a three-race weekend, we had to race that afternoon.

We made the race at the end of the day and things went OK, with me finishing 18^th, but we did have to make a big change to move forward to Sunday.

We changed the bike completely and I’m glad that we did. It was better in Sunday’s first race! I had a good start in 17th place but in trying to keep up with the factory bikes, I ran onto the grass at Hizzy’s chicane. I recovered and like before, I eventually finished18th.

The second race came it was much better. After a good start, I was soon with the factory bikes in the race and all of a sudden I found a burst of pace and came from 20th place to 14^th. I then found myself battling with James Ellison on the Airwaves Yamaha! The race was very good and we had the sixth fastest lap of the race, so we all finished on a high in 14^th position.

All that was left to was party and celebrate the end of the season. I’ll speak to you all soon when I know what I’m doing for next season, but things are looking promising!

Howie #43

I was half way free practice but it just wasn’t going the right way. We had made so many changes throughout the 50mins before disaster struck with just 10 minutes to go. I had one of the biggest high side crashes I’ve had in my racing career. It wrecked the bike and I smashed my ankle, rupturing some screws that were in there. My ankle was black and blue and the swelling made getting my boot on for race one a nightmare.

After the bad qualifying and the two engines blowing up, it was time for race one.

It started very well and we were soon battling with the factory teams. Then, Michael Rutter put me on the grass at the hairpin, forcing me to rejoin the group at the back. I eventually came through from last to 20th place from last. Eleven laps into the race however, the dash started flashing a water temp warning. The water had boiled over. I tried to carry on but didn’t realise that it was leaking water in the belly pan of the bike. That meant that when I went round the hairpin, water was spewing onto the rear tyre and spat me off. That left us with no engines left and a broken bike, forcing us to retire from race two.

Hopefully all is better at Oulton Park! Speak to you all soon.

On Friday practice we went out onto the track. Croft isn’t my favourite of tracks, I have always struggled there since I smashed my hand 2 years ago on the MV Agusta, but I’m back here, 4 plates and 6 screws later.

We made a lot of changes to the bike but it still didn’t feel quite right, I wanted it to feel like my bike. I spoke to the crew chief on Friday night and they made the changes that I’d asked for. The bike was a totally different and it felt great, just like my bike.

We were just struggling with the rear shock but we weren’t looking for much as we were only 1.1 seconds off James Ellison on the front row of the British Superbike grid. Race 1 came and I got a dreadful start. I had to stick the elbows out for the first corner I was battling with Karl Harris and Watanarba. I finished the race in 14th spot, another good result for us as it is only my second meeting on the bike. The Yamaha in race 2 was a better race for me, we had made more changes and the bike felt brilliant, I did a 1.21.679 seconds. The 5th placed finisher did the same time as me, so it proves if we get with them from the start I can keep with them. I just need to practice my starts now!

Speak to you all soon

Best wishes

Howie #43

It was for Team Maxxis Yamaha, what an experience, it’s nothing like the Superstock 1000 class. I thought you could just get on the bikes and ride them, but there is so much more to it than that.

On Saturday morning we sat down with chief technician Ray Stringer, former British Superbike racer. We were going through the data on the laptop from the test, hoping we could find a set up for first qualifying. We went out and I had the wrong approach. In Superbikes you get 50 minutes a session and I am only used to 20mins in Superstock, so I went straight out and got on it quick but it was a mistake. After 6 laps I had a disaster, I crashed mid corner at Mansfield. I lost the front going to fast to soon, I needed to get some more familiarity with the bike.

Session 2 came. It went much better, we were trying to find the right gearing for the track. The new R1 1000cc is totally different to normal 1000cc, it has a big bang engine so its like a V-Twin, that was hard to get used to, but we managed to qualify in 17th place, which, for my first time on the bike was good.

In the Premiere British Superbike class we made a lot of changes for Race 1 and it payed off, we had a good race, battling with some of the top rides like Karl Harris on the Hydrex Honda and managed to finish in 16th place.

In race 2 I got a much better start as I was getting used to launch control. Now we had gotten up into 15th place and pushing. I managed to reach 12th place and on the last 3 laps trying to catch the other group. I ran wide and some riders came past me, they were the Buildbase Kawasaki and the HM plant bike, Karl Mugeridge.  I hung onto them but couldn’t pass. I ended up in 14th place, a very good finish. The team were very pleased and so were Yamaha. I’d got some points in the British Superbikes.

The next one is at croft next week I hope I can improve on my places.

Speak to you all soon

Best wishes

Howie #43

It started badly on Friday, 1st time out on track and the bike only got half way round when a piece of metal broke off! This left a hole the size of a pea in the side and it started to leak oil. I didn’t even get to finish one lap! Thankfully this was all was sorted by the first qualifying session.

We’ve had a break and as a result hadn’t been on a bike for 5 weeks. We went straight out and put it in 11th place without any practice which was very pleasing. The second qualifying on the Saturday went very well, we finished up in 7th place, the team and I were very happy. It give us a great chance to get a good start and get to the front of the pack for the race.

Sunday came, race day, I was very nervous but when the lights went green all was forgotten. Unfortunately all did not go to plan and we got a bad start! Later on we had a bit of luck and some steady riding and made a lot of places up at the hairpin and were up into 8th place. After 2 laps we’d moved up into 6th and heading to the front.

We were making good pace, it was 3 laps to the end when we caught up with the leaders, then to our dismay, the race was red flagged and called a race result! We were classified as 6th which was not a bad result, but I think could of moved up some more places.

Next up is Cadwell Park in 3 weeks, speak to you all then.

Best wishes

Howie #43

I’ve been at Knockhill and I’ve was dreading this round all year! But when we got there the team boss Axel Berstrom said he would teach me the best way to approach the track, he said to me to treat the track like a motocross track, ride the curbs, there are a lot of blind tight corners here so I did, and it worked!

I loved the track, I was having so much fun and then…it went wrong… the engine blew! The team stayed up all night and rebuilt it for the next days qualifying sessions.

Qualifying was going well, I was in the first 3 with 10 mins to go but disaster struck and the engine blew again! I ended up in 14th place on the grid so I had a lot of work to do in the race. The track is very small and doesn’t have many places to pass but I knew I could make places.

The race started and it was going well I had just got up to 7th place and started to catch the front group, I didn’t see the black and yellow flag until it was too late. I had to pull in from the race and I was gutted! I was told the engine was smoking again, it was heart breaking.

The team needed to sort the problem out so this week the engineers have spoken to the Kawasaki factory and they have helped solve the problem. It was a valve in the gear box causing the oil to start burning which was in turn caused the smoke.

I’m hoping for the next round at Brands Hatch I will be on the top step! I will speak to you all after Brands.

Best Wishes

Howie
#43

On the Friday test the bike felt so different to Thruxton. As soon as I left the pits on Friday it felt hard to ride so we made more changes to the JX Fuelcard Kawasaki and it got no better so the first qualifying was very hard. I hit a point where I couldn’t go any faster and it was the same on the Saturday qualifying so I sat up with the crew chef Axle Berstrom and we had tried the setting from Kawasaki and it was time to go back to mine and I’m glad we did - the bike felt mega!

I went 2 seconds faster and was in the top six in the morning warm up. I knew I had good pace for the race but what a disaster! I had a lot of work to do due to the bad qualifying.

I was in 15th position on the grid and when the lights changed I went like mad going into 11th on the first bend and then got up to ninth going into Russell’s. I went in to hot anyway but on the way in the chain come off I lost all engine braking.

I tried to stop it with the brakes, missed everyone on the first part but was just too fast for the second part of the corner and ended up in the grass on my bum.

I tried to get back on but the chain was on. I was gutted but that’s racing so onwards and upwards. I just hope that at the next round at Knockhill in Scotland it’s not raining.

All the best,
Howie #43

It’s my favourite track and it helps when you know you can go fast on parts of it. The first session was ok but we had to change a lot for the qualifying session, including the gearing and suspension.

When qualifying came the bike was better, but still needed some more changes. I made these by the time the race came around and thankfully they paid off. I knew I had a good race pace and as it turned out I had set the second fastest lap of the race. I was in 3rd place and the brakes started to fade with 3 laps to the end. I tried to ignore the problem but it caught me out and I ran straight over the big curbs at the last corner and lost a couple of places, I was down into 5^th and the brakes was getting worse.  Once the race finished and I heard a clunking noise, the brake calliper had come loose. It was lucky that the race was over or it could have been a disaster.

We have three weeks off now until Snetterton because of the Isle of Man TT so I will speak to you all soon.

Best wishes
Howie #43

The weekend started badly with the bike leaking oil in the first session and after three laps it was flagged off track and sent back to the pits. We had to strip it for the afternoon qualifying. The mechanics thought it was an oil filter problem so they changed the filters, we went out into the qualifying and the same thing happened again! It was back to the drawing board, the team worked very late to solve the problem and in qualifying 2 we managed to scrape 7th place, which was a great result and it meant a second row on the grid.

Unfortunately there were still some problems. When I tried some practice starts it was hard to get off line, which came to haunt me at the race start. It was difficult to come off line and a bike hit me! I managed to stay on but dropped back to 14th place, so I really had my work cut out.

Eventually I pulled through to 6th place but the clutch started to go wrong and I ended up finishing in 8^th place, it was a great battle to the end and I was lucky to finish the race! There was oil all over bike, the team have a lot of work to do as we are at Thruxton in 2 days. I hope it will be all sorted as Thruxton is my favourite track.

Speak to you all very soon

Best wishes

Howie #43

We are one of the few running gas internals in the front forks and the feel for me is completely different to what I am use too. So the more time on the bike and with the team really helps, as I get to understand the bike and the team, plus mechanic Axel Bergstrom (ex Japan Motocross GP champion and World Motocross rider),

We picked a nice day so we could make steady progress, the sun shinning but it was very windy. In fact when I was going down craner curves in 5th gear flat-out I could feel the wind was pushing me right out to the edge of the track.

It was hard to get the bike spot on but we now feel we are more in the ball park with the bike than if we hadn’t gone on Tuesday, Kenny Guilbertson (my team mate) was there too but he was riding in the Superbikes, so I got to see how much quicker the superbike was to mine, (not much difference) we went round together all-day passing and out, braking each other - it was fun!

Next it’s Donington Park race weekend on the May 25^th. I’m so excited; hope we can improve on the 6th place at Oulton Park, only 2 weeks to go.

Speak to you all soon!

BEST WISHES
HOWIE#43