Round 4: CEV 125GP Spanish Championship

Track: Albacete Circuit

The weather conditions in Spain were in total contrast to the conditions of last week, therefore the bike settings needed to be altered. Glenn completed 2 sessions of 40 minutes on Friday. His fastest time was 1.37.9. Glenn said, he had problems with the bike on the entry of each corner. As a result, he was unable to produce the times he expected.

Regardless of yesterday’s events, the Qualifying Day was a new day and Glenn knew the importance of remaining positive. The first session was always going to be difficult for the wind had picked up over night. With such intensity of wind, the engine struggles. The mechanics are challenged to adjust the bike to the correct settings. The wind tends to pick up the front of the bike, making it a very wild and bumpy ride through those fast turns. Glenn said, “The first session did not go well.” No doubt his comment was in relation to only improving on yesterday’s time by 100th of a second. Glenn’s biggest problem now was confidence with this bike.

During the second session chief mechanic with the Honda Stop and Go Castrol team, Groka stepped in to assist. Groka made some changes with the front triple clamps of the bike to help improve his lap time. Glenn improved his time by 800ths of a second to a 1.37.2. Glenn said, “I felt a massive change in the bike and had more feeling in the front end to enter the turns faster.” Glenn was 8th fastest in qualifying in his group but with 50 riders they were split into two groups. This resulted in Glenn starting from 20th on the grid for Sunday’s big race. Although Glenn felt disappointment in his allotment on the grid, he was happy he and the team had made progress with the bike.

Sunday morning warm up was early. At 9am the 125GP class hit the road on a very slippery track. The circuit temperature was only 10 degrees. The warm up was taken more to check the bike. Glenn experienced problems with vision due to the cold misty weather.

Feeling nervous, Glenn suited up and headed out for his warm up lap and the race. Glenn raced off to an excellent start and used his knowledge and experience of the track to survive some close calls and avoid crashes. After the first lap Glenn was in 16th position. By the 5th lap, Glenn realised he had suspension problems. Just before the race the wind picked up. The wind was not playing in favour of Glenn. With this Glenn again came across a big confidence problem. Working through the issues Glenn managed to pass some riders but he could not stay with the main pack. Making his way to 13th with 5 laps remaining his time was half a second slower due to the bike set up. Glenn was lapping in the 37’s all race until the end where he fell in to the low 38’s. Remarkably, he still was able to finish in 13th position.

“I am not so happy with my result this weekend,” Glenn stated. “I know I can finish in the top ten or better. I am now even more determined to get a good result in the next round of the CEV 125GP Spanish Championship.”

By Steven Bennett