Last weekend, Glenn Scott competed in the Catalan Championship held just North of Barcelona in Catalunya, Montmelo. Glenn has competed at this track before and he reports that the Catalan circuit is one of his favourite rides. Glenn is competed in this race so he could become more familiar with his 'Honda Stop & Go Castrol' team and his bike settings. Next week Glenn is competing in Round 2 of the CEV Championship. Although the Catalan Championship isn't the same standard as the prestigious CEV Championship, it will certainly provide quite a challenge for the World Number 1 to be.

Two free, priceless practice sessions were presented on Friday. These practice sessions had a time limit of only 20minutes, which proved difficult for Glenn and his newly settled in 'Honda Stop & Go Castrol' team to familiarise themselves with the course and find the right setting. The largely flowing 'Catalunya' course was very dirty but due to Glenn's accurate riding and a couple different setups, Scott finished the day with a time of 1.59.5mins. This time is quite remarkable for a first practice, in unfamiliar conditions and for a rookie rider like Glenn. Saturday looked to be a waiting day, as the race was in the evening.

Saturday started with two qualifying opportunities of 20 minutes. With the improved settings of the bike, Glenn was able to start the day by bettering his time by one second. Glenn without fail again bettered his time in the second session to start with a time of 1.57.0mins which left him in an impressive 6^th spot on the grid. After these qualifying times, Glenn Scott exclaimed "The times are not so fast, the dirty circuit and short track time has made it difficult to record fast times. I think it will be possible to improve the times in the race, for we have found a good base setting."

Come 6:45pm the Catalan Championship was underway and by the first turn Glenn had already moved to 4^th spot. On the back straight of the second lap, Glenn Scott ran into some mechanical difficulties, namely a rear brake issue. Not knowing what was going on and with numerous riders passing him, Glenn sensibly forfeited the race. "I got a great start and was in a good position but it was just bad luck to come across this problem with the rear brake. The team views this race as a test to sort out such problems. Overall, the team worked well" Scott said, somewhat disappointed.

By Christian Whitfield
Central Coast Grammar School
New South Wales
Australia