The opening round of the British Supermono Championship at Brands Hatch was always going to be tough, there were lots of new riders with new machines not to mention all the regulars to deal with as well.

Testing had not really gone to plan on the run up to the championship with the Ledenon test being reduced somewhat by the wind and ultimately crashing Gordon.
A follow up test at Cadwell resulted in just seven laps on track due to mechanical gremlins.

So the reality was I had actually not had much time onboard Gordon to sort out any of his issues. Luckily, as it turned out the motor was on form but his handling was way off the mark.

Ridden at a certain pace he was fine but when pushed hard he would judder and patter very badly, the resulting effect was I had to slow down in the middle of the corner to what seemed like a pedestrian pace, or so it felt like!

We shared a garage with Glen English and the minimonos I've ridden for the last few years.
Gordon's mates were checking them out.

Practice at Brands confirmed my worst fears, I just couldn’t carry any corner speed, this would prove a major drag at Brands on the Indy circuit.

However whilst trying to work out what, when and where, I managed to pop in a quick lap to get Gordon qualified on the front row.

Off the track, I was doing a bit of planning in my head - my race strategy was to get a good start get to the front and then make myself as wide as possible, thus forcing everyone go round the long way to try and get past, then squirt it down the straight and do some more ‘danger braking’ in effect trying to set it up, so no one could make a pass.

The start was good for Gordon and me and we quickly settled down in 4th place hard on the heels of the leading group, but then Nick Chadwick on the East West KTM high sided coming out of Clearways unfortunately taking out Mark Lawes as well as a consequence.

This brought out the red flags. A complete re run was given so we refuelled and set off again.

A better start this time leading into the first corner but to be honest, poor Gordon’s forks were right on the edge of their limit, it pattered and juddered round the first couple of corners then Glen English on my spare bike from last season squeezed passed, he could carry loads more corner speed so I settled down behind him.

Henk From just keeps getting taller...

These excellent action shots are all by PLJPhoto, in this one, look carefully, you can just see Glen behind me.

The rest of the minimono pack was not far behind so I had to defend and try to catch and pass Glen, not an easy task.
Young Aaron Easter was snapping at my heals, and I was making his life hell - out braking him - then slowing right down mid corner to baulk his corner speed, and then using Gordon’s power advantage to drive away from him.

I did manage to pass Glen a few times but eventually I was worn down by the repeated efforts and settled myself into second place, but it wasn’t over just yet.
This Aaron lad just wouldn’t give up.

A few of Gordon's special friends were there to watch his track debut.

Click here to visit the PLJPhoto site:

I imagine that it was a great race to watch, and I have to admit, that after all the hard work, and efforts of his ‘special friends’ – it was great to get Gordon on to the rostrum at his first event.

Snetterton is next, May bank holiday, that should give me time to do something about his handling by then; new forks maybe?
Anyone out there with some R6 ones I could use?

You can visit Gordon's personal site by clicking here:

or visit the blog by clicking here:

www.no1bloke.blogspot.com