Well we are here bright and early at Mallory Park Circuit for the first test day of the season. Rob's got the bacon rolls cooking, Harry's got his headphones on trying to focus and I'm sat here typing away trying to make myself look busy.
The bike is looking especially clean and undamaged this morning and we are hoping for the same looking bike at the end of the day. The tyre warmers are on, the leathers are zipped up and Harry is sitting waiting to get onto the track.
Session One is now underway however due to track surfaces the decision was made that Harry wouldn't take part in this session.
Session two is moments away from beginning and Harry is in the pit lane ready to take off. The track is now completely dry and although it's looking a bit cloudy we are hoping that the dry spell continues.
And we are off.... Harry starts the session and gets away very swiftly. However the session came to a quick end when Harry experienced a power failure coming up to Stebbe Straight. We were disappointed by this result however are pleased that the incident occurred on a test day and not during a race weekend.
After the bike was returned back to the garage, Rob began trying to diagnose the cause of the power failure. We believe the issue was caused by a fault with the clutch however after a few minutes the clutch appeared to be working again properly.
Session three is beginning and Harry is going out to test the bike to confirm whether the clutch issue has been resolved. Harry went out and managed to complete a lap but retired from the session early due to the bike having no drive after going into 4th gear or higher.
Rob spent some more time making some adjustments, with the support of friends in the paddock, and we are ready to get Harry back out onto the track to see if the adjustments have now fixed the issues experienced.
Session four is underway and Harry has begun the session with a lap time of 1:08:697. The team's sigh of relief could be heard round the paddock as the bike successfully managed a full lap. Halfway through the session now and Harry has cut his time down to 1:04:809, Harry's lap times are consistent around the 1:04 to 1:05 mark. At the end of session four Harry's best lap time of the session is 1:04:362 which is a huge positive for the team. As the first session that Harry has participated in on this test day his times are good and show that he has the pace and technical knowledge to improve his times throughout the race season.
Session five has now begun and Harry started off with a strong 1:04.992. Half way through the session Harry's times are still within the 1:04 to 1:05 range. Harry is overtaking other racers and is using the speed he has within the corners to his advantage. After getting caught behind another racer Harry put his best lap time of the session at 1:04.134. At the end of session Harry remained within the 1:04 lap times showing consistency and also preventing other people from overtaking him.
Session six begins with a strong 1:05:555. After a quick stop in the pit lane due to Harry's ear protectors coming loose Harry re-joined the track with a quick 1:03:912, which was the fastest lap this session. Harry remained steady with 1:05's this session until an incident with another driver led to Harry having to move to prevent a collision.
Final session starts with only 3 riders on track, Harry's gives a 1:06:997 for the first lap and continues taking the final session at a steady pace to fully familiarise himself with the bike for the new season. Harry winds down the session by putting in a 1:05:377 as his fastest lap this session before coming back into the pits.
After a rocky start to the morning Harry was able to put some laps in and set a 1:03:912 as his best time of the day. We are confident that the lap time will continue to come down as the season progresses and cannot wait to share the results with you all.
We are looking forward to kicking the season off next weekend in the NG Championship at Brands Hatch.
A big shout out to our sponsors this year EBC Brakes, RJ Hawkins Fleet Cleaning Services, Reliable Bikers Safety Gear, Motorcycle World - Northampton and New Recycling Limited who we hope to do proud.
Thank you for continued support both on and off the track and thank you for joining the journey of a teenage bike racer.