Andy at Snetterton 200

Snetterton turned out to be a pretty good weekend for Andy. Having never ridden the 200 circuit before, the test day and qualifying were used to gradually increase his pace ready for racing. In fact in each of qualifying and the 2 dry races over the weekend Andy improved his lap time by half a second each time - working on that basis it would only take a couple of weeks worth of riding to break the lap record 😉

The really interesting racing took place on Sunday, starting from his mandated position at the back of the grid in Race 1 Andy had an uncharacteristic poor start which gave for some hard work during the race. On this circuit it was evident that the ZX10r was underpowered and time was being lost on the long Bentley straight. A race long battle saw Andy stuck behind a very fast R1 for most of the race, after three attempts at a pass into turn 1 Andy learnt to carry speed through the turn to be right on the back wheel and dive up the inside into turn 2, although somewhat of a block pass, this was a pass for 3rd place so there was no time for courtesy! Andy held 3rd place until the final corner when that same R1 lunged up the inside to regain the final podium spot, but a simple cut back allowed Andy to square up and get on the gas early in order to re-pass for 3rd place before the line.

Race 2 on Sunday was extremely wet. There was enough standing water to mean that the Bridgestone wets could not clear the water fast enough meaning lots of aquaplaning and Andy, who is usually pretty useful in the rain, after a few laps of racing decided to back off and play for a finish. Something it turns out was a pretty good choice as most of the field ended up not finishing through abandonment or sliding off. Another 3rd place pot but this time for a clever ride!