New Era Pro-Bike Superclub Championship
Rounds 8 & 9 Snetterton, 2nd&3rd September.
After a difficult few months, the Jagger Racing team were hoping for a change in fortune for the Snetterton Meet!! Phil has now acquired a Suzuki GSXR 1000 K5 to replace the badly damaged K1.
In testing on friday Phil slowly but surely began to improve his times as he became more and more accustomed to the new machine.
Saturday morning was grey and overcast, but Phil was fairly happy to qualify 15th of the 52 bikes on track, this put him in 13th on the grid for his races.
As usual the weather was going to play a big part in the racing. Shortly befor race 1 started, light showers dampened the circuit but Phil decided to run on slicks and only change if conditions worsened. On the first lap he managed to get up to 9th place and quickly settled into the running. Half way through the race the weather was worse but as Phil was feeling comfortable, he stayed out on the slicks. After shadowing the championship leader for a couple of laps, Phil finally managed to pass him and finish a fantastic 6th place.
Race 2 was much dryer but heavy rain was forecast, so Phil decided to run using intermediate tyres. Unfortunately the promised rain never came, Phil could only manage an 11th place finish.
Saturday night the previous days promised wet weather arrived with heavy rain overnight. A mediocre start on race 1 left him on the tail of the pack in the opening laps. Strong crosswinds on the latter part of the track was causing Phil to struggle. Phil was understandably "gutted" to finish 12th.
Phil made a better start to race 2 seeing him inside the top 10 posting consistent lap time in 9th position. Following the retirement of 2 rivals Phil managed to finish in 7th claiming a valuable 7 points towards his total, putting him in 9th position overall.
Thanks to Pete Wileman Photography for the pictures.
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