The first two rounds of the Hamilton MCC Arai Winter Series had been great. I'd gotten my first pole position and had some really good results, but I'd also had a DNF in the rain when I withdrew and the points were getting really close. Nathan Jane and I were going to be battling it out for second place in the championship, with first all but wrapped up by Greg Smith if he turned up.

For the last round I'd run out of tyres and I wasn't able to get my usual ones so I was going to have to run on a totally unknown brand of tyre. Not only was the make of tyre different but they were a smaller size as well. On top of that I'd decided that as I wasn't getting the gear change light in sixth at the end of the start/finish the gearing wasn't quite right so I'd gone a tooth larger on the rear sprocket. Plus, I'd been fiddling with the fuelling and ignition maps to try and negate the engine braking that upsets the bike into corners.

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