A great weekends racing: Two race wins and another new lap record!

Since the last race meeting - the British Superbike weekend back in July, I had plenty of time to analyse what went well, and what I could do better. It wasn't difficult as the British Championships have split times for every lap, and I could see that despite setting a new lap record that day, my main rival Sandy Christie was still faster between Clarks and the start/finish - which for those of you who haven't been to Knockhill is basically two straights with a hairpin in the middle. So I needed to get out of the hairpin better - change my gearing again; and make the bike faster - invest in a new exhaust and get Stuart Young to work his magic on the injection map to suit.

Stuart certainly did produce the goods at his YPE workshop and dyno room, the bike was making several BHP more than before, sounded sharper, and the whole package was helped by a new development Rock Oil from Dave Wellington which appears frighteningly thin, reducing drag but maintaining the engine protection.

One other interesting thing I wanted to try (not for the first time) was wearing contact lenses. My eyesight is marginal for driving, and it's a standing joke when we go on holiday in Thailand after Macau that I wear my glasses when we go out at night there so I can see what's going on, but don't wear then when racing round one of the most dangerous circuits in the world!

My optician and friend since the early Ducati days Murray McGrath provided a new type of contact lens through his McGrath and Cameron practice, which I would try in practice at Knockhill.

I set up at Knockhill, the van freshly MOT'd (thanks Neil Williams Haulage and Hays Garage) and watched the morning activities - a track day being attended by Ian Willcox who would be helping me throughout the weekend, and another friend Andy Purvis. Andy was setting the pace on his Honda SP-1 doing 60 second laps, and has plenty of plans for improving the bike.

It was dry, sunny, but extremely windy, and when I went out for my first practice I soon found that it was definitely going to be difficult to learn whether my changes to the bike were better than before as lap times were slow for everyone. I decided to conserve my good tyres - a decision that turned out to be crucial on the Sunday. Unfortunately my new Dunlops had not arrived in time for the weekend, so along with fellow Dunlop runner Sandy Christie we were trying to make the best of what we had.

Having parked my own GSXR1000 for the day, I was keen to try my Alvins.com team mate Torquil Paterson's GSXR600, and try to help him find a good base setting for his new Ohlins shock absorber. We did settle on something that was in the right area, but since I was riding it for the first time, and it seemed we weren't aiming for the same "feel", his preference obviously took precedence. But it was good to feel what a fast 600 was like!

Saturday evening I spent just tinkering with the bike, cleaning it again, getting the tyres changed to my good but used soft Dunlops for the Sunday morning qualifying. It was a clear night so I could see the firework display at Edinburgh castle about 20 miles away across the Forth. But it was so cold that I didn't stay out watching that for long!

It was great to get up and see the sun beaming through the curtains, not a cloud in the sky, and the wind had dropped too. It was still cold, but those are perfect conditions for fast laps - the bikes make noticeably more power when it's bright but cold. I was joined by Ian and Dave Nicholson who would be helping me all day - Neil Aldridge was on a weekends holiday in London. Shame he missed the best weekend of the year so far.

We had a slight hiccup when it was discovered that the rear tyre warmer had stopped working, with only 25 minutes to go before the qualifying session. Since I would have to spend a few laps warming the tyre, I chose to put some new brake pads in and scrub them too. Dave set to work swapping them while Ian fixed the tyre warmer plug.

I went out for the qualifying knowing that my main rivals would be Sandy Christie and Mark Wright, 1st and 2nd in the championship. I was careful to warm the tyre and scrub in the pads - though they only took about 2 laps before they felt better than the ones we took out. So I set off to try and get a good lap time. I reckoned a high 52s lap would be good enough for pole. However, there was some oil with cement dust on it at the hairpin which spoiled my line, and I spotted more oil on the entry to Clarks. I couldn't get below 53.3s, having done two in a row I came in to the pits to find that everyone was having the same problems - unexpected slides and no confidence to push it any harder. So I decided to leave it at that, thinking I'd still be on the front row whatever happened - my first front row start this season. Indeed that is how it stayed, with Sandy Christie on pole, me 2nd, and Mark Wright third, the three of us covered by less than 1/10th of a second. It was going to be a good race!

The one big success from the qualifying was that the contact lenses stayed in my eyes perfectly despite having the helmet vents open to stop the visor misting up. This was a revelation being able to see clearly, and without the constant effort to stop them flipping out as had happened in previous experiments. Thanks Murray!

I still had one new rear Dunlop which I had saved for the race, so we got it fitted and balanced up. I was sure that it would be an advantage over the one I used in qualifying, but with the drawback that I'd only have the "out lap" to the grid to scrub it in. I still had the same front on which had done the race in July and qualifying on Sunday.

We lined up for Race 1 in bright breezy conditions, and as usual everyone on the front row had their "poker faces" on, no looking left or right! I watched the lights and got a tremendous start, but as usual was out-dragged to the first corner, ending up about 4th. I don't remember the exact sequence, but on the second lap I was definitely still 4th with Sandy leading but he wasn't pulling away. This worked perfectly for me as I was able to ensure that the rear tyre was well scrubbed before having to push it. I slipped past Norman McLeod and Mark Wright to go second behind Sandy, and we pulled away gradually as I was happy to follow him and check out where I could make time or where I thought my bike was better.

I was fairly confident I could pass him, but maybe not pull away, so I decided to wait 'til late in the race and see whether he made a mistake or got held up by backmarkers. We got a clear run through, and it was clearly going to come down to the last lap. We were doing mid 53s laps despite lapping people, and on the last lap I got the perfect drive out of Clarks and pulled out of his slipstream round towards the hairpin - the last corner of the last lap! This has been the scene of literally dozens of braking duels between us over the years, but this time I was on the inside, with good brakes and a good set up, and managed to brake later, even when he realised I was there and let off his brakes a little I was able to match him and get into the corner on the right line on the inside. We were distracted a bit by an unbelievably slow back marker (who we were lapping for the second time in a 10 lap race), but I got a great drive out and headed for the line, even having time to signal to Ian and Dave as I neared the line, and won by 0.078 seconds. That's probably about a bikes length, but it's enough!

What a feeling, 15 months since I last won, and my first win on that bike, and in that class. Great! I can tell you it still feels as good as my first win 18 years ago. I couldn't resist a Rossi-style standing on the footrests celebration as I cruised into the hairpin on the slowing down lap. There was a big crowd there on Sunday, probably more than I've seen except at a British Superbike round, so that made it better too.

So now I just needed to do it all again in the second leg. The Regal series is run on the basis of two races per day, with separate points, but an aggregate prize fund. So although I was still well out of contention for the championship, I wanted that double win.

I don't think we did anything to the bike other than Dave refuelling it (it does about 18mpg as a matter of interest), and giving it a clean, and we stuck the tyre warmers on as soon as we got back to conserve the heat in the tyres.

I lined up for the second race, a lot more confident and looking forward to it. I got another great start but was once again outdragged by Donald Macfadyen from the second row. How did he do that? I don't remember whether I was second or third as we went into McIntyres for the first time, but I do remember hooking first gear instead of second, and as I let the clutch out the bike just went sideways, so far that I was really lucky to catch it. I lost several places, and by the end of lap two was lining up to pass Donald Macfadyen as we went towards the hairpin. I outbraked him, but yanked the anchors on too hard, and got well out of control. I couldn't help but pass second placed Norman McLeod and almost overshot the corner completely. By the time I got it gathered up I had dropped to 5th (I think), and saw Sandy Christie coming through right behind me. I don't know how he had gone from pole position to being there, but it spurred me into catching the others up again, and that was the lap on which I set a new lap record at 52.39, almost 0.5s quicker than my previous record, and not surprisingly I did catch the others, and passed them all within the next lap to take the lead.

Unknown to me, immediately after I passed Mark Wright to take the lead, he fell off at the hairpin. I got my head down and tried to pull away, but the well used front tyre was beginning to give warning signs until it slid so much at the hairpin that it gave a howl as it gripped again. OK, so that'll be the limit then! I didn't look back until the penultimate lap, and saw that I had a reasonable gap of about 2-3 seconds. This meant that I could be slightly less ruthless passing the backmarkers, and in the end I crossed the line at the end of the 10th lap with just under 2 seconds in hand over the second place rider. But they forgot to show the chequered flag and I had slowed a bit, allowing Donald Macfadyen to catch and pass me. He decided to continue to race for another lap. I chased him just to be sure of at least being second! But in the end the results stood at the end of ten laps, so I won again.

Most surprisingly, championship leader Sandy Christie had crashed out on the penultimate lap, just after getting through to second place. This means that I am now only 7 points behind him with one meeting (2 races) remaining. It boils down to whoever wins on the day winning the championship... again.

I was really happy with the way the bike was going in every sense - performance, handling, grip - and it looks like my next meeting on it will be the final round of the British Championship Superstock series, run alongside the British Superbikes, at Donington Park on the 29th September. Then the final Knockhill round the following weekend of the 6th October. So make a date in your diaries for either or both of them.

It only remains to thank everyone who has contributed to the season so far, getting me into a position where I can win the Regal Championship:

Sponsors - Itronix, Alvins.com, Neil Williams Haulage, Transco, ETI, Rock Oil London, YPE, Knockhill, Traxxion

The people I want to thank - mechanics Dave Nicholson, Neil Aldridge, Ian Willcox; for technical help Gareth Evans of Reactive Suspension and Max McAllister of Traxxion, Phil Plater at Dunlop, Murray McGrath of McGrath & Cameron, and Graham and Sandra Dove for their work on the website.

Can't wait for the big showdown now!!!