As always the first round came round very quickly & caught out many teams including the Sendo Superbike Team.

Lack of testing time meant the first races on Brands Indy circuit were always going to be hard work with the pace being so close on a one mile track.

I arrived quite late on set-up day to be shocked at how full the paddock area was. Probably thirty percent bigger than last season with many motor-homes crammed into the bottom of paddock three. Must arrive earlier next time!

The sun was shining for practice on Saturday & my Kawasaki’s felt good in the first session. Down on speed & one of the slower bikes through the speed traps that seemed to be a fuelling problem rather than engine. Chris Mayhew builds my engines & I regard him as the best in the UK, with all of our bikes being down on speed I was confident the mapping wasn’t right.

First qualifying went rather well with me ending up in 13 th position, I know that shouldn’t make me happy but being down on speed my best lap-time was already eight tenths faster than last year on the Yamaha & my fastest lap was a brain-out one.

Problems in the second session kept me from the circuit for a while & wasn’t able to improve on my times, which wasn’t surprising. Other rider had dropping me to 16 th on the grid!

The chassis was working well & I’d pretty much been to the limit for my best time….. Can’t beat horse-power!

Race-day was a big shock for many but I can’t believe how many people came to watch, the crowd looked more like a WSB meeting.

My start in race-one was awesome & was into the top ten on lap one, by lap two I’d been passed by a couple of riders on the straight & noticed some fluid on the screen. As I rounded Druids I looked down to see fuel leaking all over me & the bike so quickly pulled off the circuit…. Not the start I wanted!