| Jed Metcher Round 1 |
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Thanks to www.sl-grafics.com, www.damenleathers.nl and www.ogkhelmet.com. MTM-RT Motorsport/Jed Metcher Round 1 STK 600 Championship. Day 1 of the first round for 2011 brought fantastic weather to the Assen circuit in the Netherlands. After a strong preseason test it was time to get down to business with all the preparation completed for the first practise on Friday 16th April. A very cold morning in the North of Holland meant that the track temperature was very low which can tear the edge of a tyre. When this happens the grip level decreases rapidly. The team and I made a good decision to stay in and only do a minimal amount of laps to save the tyre for the warmer conditions.
Qualifying 1 came around at midday and the choice to save the tyre paid off as I managed to complete only 3 fast laps to sit in pole position for 90% of the session. Towards the end a French and an Italian rider took the risk to use a new tyre and managed to get ahead of me. I was feeling very confident in third position; it was a great spot to be in with a spare set of tyres still up my sleeve. We also gained a better setting for the bike, ready for the next qualifying. Qualifying 2 came on Saturday 17th, with a different strategy. My initial laps were on an old tyre so that I could find a nice rhythm and plan my attack with the fresh rubber that was waiting for me in the pits. I entered the pits, changed tyres and headed out for a lap that would improve on third position. The plan went accordingly, now feeling confident on the bike I could push hard by myself on the track and manage to take pole position with 25 minutes remaining in the session! The previous pole time was a 1.41.6 and I managed a 1.41.3, I was very happy with this time and believed it was possible to improve on it.
The pressure was on! Being the fastest in qualifying is one thing, but to put together a perfect race is another. My Start to the race was great and the first corner was mine, my strategy to pull away at the start was going to plan until lap 3 when a rider came past, and soon after that, another rider. I knew I had some time until 4th place so I decided to let the riders in 1st and 2nd push hard and hopefully make a mistake or ruin their tyres, but this didn’t happen. So I put my head down, I managed to break the lap record, move in to second place and gain confidence to follow the leader until the last laps. Unfortunately the French rider in third position decided to hold both of us up and give the rider in first position the chance to break away. This was very frustrating because we had only one lap left. I planned my move in the last part of the track but was forced onto the artificial grass and lost traction missing out on second place by only .05 of a second!
The Championship points I gained from third position, are going to help me out a lot, and I’m looking forward to the next round in Monza Italy where I hope to improve even more!! Thanks to Ludo Van Der Veken, Swen Jenik, Rob Vennegoor, Roberto Lukken Codes, all the support crew from the team, Damen Leathers for the speedy repairs and my family and friends for all their amazing support. Jed Metcher | 11 Rockliffe St Eltham, VIC 3095, Australia Mobile: +31(0)617590904| Home: +61 3 94370408 Email - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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