The second and third rounds of the UEM Supermono Cup were held in Germany at the Nurburgring GP circuit.
It was just one week after the season opener at Assen where I managed to get pole and win the race from the pit lane, so my confidence was on a real high.

Some of the teams had not gone home and in fact had gone straight to Nurburg, however Martin and the Mali Jawa team had to return to Czech Republic to prepare the Jawa and get some normal everyday work in.

Arriving at the track on Friday most of the Supermono field were all but ready to have their first of two sessions on track, the conditions were perfect so it would be interesting to see from the trackside for once how the field looked.

The Nuburgring track is a superb venue and having raced there two years ago at least I had an idea of what to expect and where I was going.

Out on the track the Supermono guys looked great, it’s strange, I never normally see either practice or the race from trackside so watching my competitors was quite a novel experience.

It was of course the usual suspects that were on the pace from the off, Lex, Stephano, and Mark Lawes, all showed good pace.

I couldn’t wait to get out there the sound of the Supermonos on full chat coming through the flat out curve on the back straight was fantastic. But just after lunch I received a text from Martin that he was still over 300km away; there would be no chance now to get out before the first timed session on Saturday morning.

At the end of the second practice session Lex was unofficially quickest with Stephan second lapping in the high 1:38’s, this would be a good bench mark for to aim for on Saturday morning.

Finally Martin arrived, full of apologies and saying sorry almost constantly. How could I criticise him? He had been working all the previous day into the early hours then set off driving through the night to get here!

He looked dead on his feet - so after we set up the awning prepped the bike he went off to bed to get some much needed sleep.

Harry had travelled over from the UK to help out for the weekend in his car - so Nico Kehrer, Harry, Perry Goldstein and I decided to do a quick lap of the old circuit in Harry’s Corsa diesel. At some 14 miles round it takes some learning so purely by chance we bumped into a guy called Andy who was a ‘Ringmeister’ and he offered to escort us round for a lap.

We shoved him into the front seat, Perry, Nico and I squeezed in the back. Off we went, flat stick wheels screaming all the way round, Harry drove like a demon and with Andy’s expert knowledge, we passed a few much more powerful cars with very surprised owners. Unofficially we did a 11 minute 15 second lap which all things considered was unbelievable, well done Harry!

Back to bikes - Saturday morning brought very poor weather, light rain then appalling visibility with fog dropping vision down to less that 100 yards in places.

All practice was suspended until things picked up, the weather at the Nurburgring is notoriously changeable so things could turn around very quickly.

After three hours Lena From informed all the competitors with news that we could loose our race later in the day and just do a practice instead.

I was starting to panic a little because I had not been out at all yet! Suddenly Harry came running in shouting “they are calling all Supermonos to practice – NOW”.

Well I’ve never seen so many people rushing around before, some teams had the wheels out fairings off, riders were away from their awnings it was sheer pandemonium.

As luck would have it my bike was ready to go so I jumped leathers while Martin fired the bike up and out we went.

I needed to do a few steady laps to make sure the motor was ok and after a quick pit stop for Martin to check things were all ok. I had not brought my pit board and the lap timer was not working so I had to guess how quick I was going.

The bike felt good but there was a carburettor hiccup on half throttle causing the bike to splutter, not what you need when you are trying to balance the bike mid corner and having to hold it up on your knee!

I wanted to pit but I desperately needed laps so stayed out as long as I could, after a few laps I saw Harry waving a borrowed pit board with P3 on it.
Oh, right - more speed then.

A lap later and P2 was on the board, next lap and P1 was being displayed, great. The weather was starting to close in and coming into the chicane on the back straight visibility was down to around 100 yards, not good when you are flat in top gear approaching a 3 gear chicane, but then the red flags came out ending our session.

I had managed to put the bike on pole again with a 1:38.2 with Lex second and Stephan third.
We would have to see what the race would bring later in the day.

I had decided to use the Assen race tyres for practice here, and they were still in such good condition that I decided to use them in the first race! Fantastically economical of me!

The weather picked up and was quite sunny for the start, we had a sighting lap then 5 mins on the line posing for pictures etc then a warm up lap before the off.

As it was so warm we didn’t bother fitting the warmers on the line because I still had a warm up lap to get some heat into the tyres.

Martin had asked me not to give the clutch too much grief off the line as we only had one clutch with us and no spares, so as the red lights went out I made the best start possible with the minimum amount of use of the clutch.

It worked very well but as the Jawa is only 625cc a few quicker bike came storming by before the first corner, Nico, Lex and Rob Hakvoort powered passed.

However it’s very important at Nurburg to be at the front through the first sections of the track - being so tight and twisty, so I did some mega braking and slid up behind Nico into turn one.

I followed him round for a lap to warm the tyres before pushing on but Nico was flying, I held on to him along the start finish straight but his bike was so quick - I would have to find a section were I could catch and then pass him.

Just before the back straight I slid under him and got my head down.

He levelled me on the brakes but I fought back and led over the line for lap 2.

It was a 17 lap race so I knew it would be much more about fast consistent laps that would make the difference but just before the first turn Lex came blasting past, his Yamaha Over machine is a rocket and I knew this, combined with his ability and after seeing him in practice, he would be the man to beat.

He led for the next few laps with me desperately hanging on to his tail; Lex would pull 25 to 50 yards on the straights making a pass on the brakes out of reach. But if I didn’t do something about it soon he might break away - I had to maximise on the sections where I was making ground to even get close.

Thankfully we caught a back marker and I used the opportunity to pass both of them into the last corner, this meant Lex now only passed me half way down the start finish straight.

I could now be in the right place on the twisty sections to capitalise on my advantage, repeatedly I passed him and he would power past on the straight.

Time was running out now but I had no pitboard and we had pulled so far away from the rest of the field nobody else’s pit board was out, so as I loose count after two laps, I was guessing exactly what lap we were on.

I sensed coming to the end of one particular lap, that Lex was pushing very hard. Coming into the last corner there was a backmarker but he had seen the blue flags and kept out the way - thanks Clive and I dove underneath Lex who was really riding hard.

As we came onto the start finish line I could see the flag marshal with the chequered flag it was now a drag race to the line.

I thought I had done just enough but the timing beam said differently, Lex had beaten me by 0.009 of a second. Close but no cigar.

The team were delighted but I couldn’t help feeling a little deflated having put so much effort in. I would be still leading the Championship but it would have been nice to get the extra 5 points available.

The bike never missed a beat and with the weather warming up the spluttering didn’t have too much of an effect but with morning warm up next day we might be able to make some changes that would help, after all we only needed 0.009 of a second!

And as Jim Doll says, “that’s like throwing a ball from London to New York, and only missing the target by 35 metres!”

Sunday brought much better conditions and during warm up the changes were an improvement but still not 100% . So we decided to leave it as it was, at least we knew it worked.

Our race was last on the schedule so a bit of sun bathing and watching the excellent racing was the order of the day, we even got to see Michael Schumacher racing in Superbike!

This time I thought we might splash out for a new rear tyre, a good look over the machine, fuelled up and we were ready for the next race.

This time we planned for tyre warmers on the grid so I could push harder on the opening lap.

Ultimately it was all in vain as on the sighting lap the temperature shot right up to over 85 degrees. It should have been no more than 65, obviously something was wrong. Martin lifted the tank to find water everywhere, Stephan came across to say he had followed me round the lap and saw a puff of steam towards the end of the lap.

The start marshals asked us to pull the bike off the grid; all was not lost,perhaps I could at least start from the pit lane I thought - but as Martin poured some water into the radiator he spotted water coming from the head gasket! That was it - all over before the off.

Poor Martin was in so upset - all his work ending like this, I cuddled him assuring him it was not his fault. With nothing else to do I wished some of the guys still on the grid good luck and watched them roar away. It was a good to watch with Nico leading upto halfway, then Lex taking over then Mark Lawes leading to the end.

No points for me though and now Lex leads the Championship on 58 points with Mark 53 and me on 45.