Round Nine. Dutch Courage. Assen, Holland.

Over the North Sea and back to Assen’s Cathedral of Speed for the first time in six years, post Brexit and post Covid. A world famous venue which also hosts MotoGP and World Superbike rounds, celebrating its 75^th anniversary.

First of the three ‘Showdown’ to the title rounds with more points on offer – the traditional 25 for a win, up from the 18 on offer during the first eight rounds. Every race weekend starts with a couple of days on the weather apps, a must ahead of Assen with its reputation for very wet, very changeable weather. It certainly didn’t disappoint in that regard!

The layout of the circuit with its very high-speed and heavily cambered curves suits the characteristics of our AJN Steelstock ZX-10RR Kawasakis. Add to that Christian and Max enjoy racing at Assen and are both confident in wet conditions….

Approaching three miles in length, a lap of Assen takes around 1.36 so fewer practice laps than usual are possible which places a premium on circuit experience and knowledge. With their recent world superbikes experience, Ray and Redding were immediately on the pace with McPhee’s Moto3 and Haslam’s world and BSB successes standing them in good stead too.

It was all set for some fast and close racing.

Free practice and qualifying

Sunny and cool conditions for Friday, but at least it was dry. A quiet start in FP1 as the circuit was ‘green’ from previous rain washing and wasn’t offering up much grip. Christian and Max focussed on re-learning the track and getting comfortable with its high speeds. By the end of 14 laps in FP2 Christian was just 0.7 off Ray’s leading time in P6 with Max a couple of tenths behind, P11. Both would go straight through to the second part of qualifying.

Still dry. 10 minutes of free practice to warm up for qualifying. Just enough time for six laps on worn tyres before the main qualifying action. By the end of the 15 minute Q2 session, Christian had just missed out on a second row start, P7 but only 0.5 slower than Ray’s pole time. Max, only slightly off the pace qualified P11 with work to do from row four of the race one grid.

Race one

18 lap feature race. Then the rain came. As the grid formed up, light rain had started and anyone coming around on slick tyres quickly changed to either a wet front and rear tyre set up or a wet front intermediate rear option. By the time the riders set off on the warm up lap the track was properly wet, conditions in which Christian excels, and Max is handy too. Both made good starts and were confident in the feel their bikes were giving them enabling Christian to get up to P2 quickly and chasing down Redding in the lead. Pushing on at turn one, Christian had to run on through the gravel as he saved a front wheel lock up on the brakes. He held on but resumed in P11.  Max had made up places on lap one and continued to make confident passes. Benefiting from Christian’s mistake, Max was up to P3 by lap seven.

Christian was making an impressive recovery, 0.5 faster than next fastest man Ray and well over a second a lap faster than most. Max was holding his own as the rain got heavier and heavier, Ray closing on him but with Redding and Haslam still in sight. Then it went wrong as he aquaplaned on a big puddle at the apex of one of Assen’s banked camber corners which hold the water. Down he went with Ray suffering the same fate a lap later. Red Flag. Conditions too dangerous to continue so the restart was abandoned and classified as a 12 laps sprint race with half points awarded. Ray was classified P3 on count back, but Max missed out on a podium finish. Christian came home P5 with his fastest lap putting him on pole for race two. Max would start P6.

Race two

Both Sunday races would be full length, 18 lap, feature races. But the showers kept coming in. Declared a dry race - so it would be stopped if conditions changed - after a handful of laps the rain intervened, and the race was abandoned. Full 18 lap restart in fully wet conditions. The rain had stopped so there was risk of a drying track – which wet tyre to use, the harder more durable compound or the softer grippier alternative? Choosing to go with the harder tyre, Christian made a perfect start from pole position. He was never headed throughout the race, using all his skill and experience to keep Skinner and Ray on the softer tyre just behind him. As the track did start to dry, Christian’s harder tyre held for him to take a brilliant win.

Max went with the softer tyre and for the first four laps he was comfortable in P3 behind Ray and Christian – both AJN Steelstock Kawasaki’s running in podium positions! By half distance, Max’s soft tyre was starting to give up and sure enough he got picked off as others found more grip and he crossed the line P11 but delighted for his team mate. Christian and Max make a great team out on track. Christian would start race three from P4 and Max only P11 due to his late race lack of pace.

One very delighted Christian on the podium with an equally delighted crew applauding below.

Race three

Finally, a dry race. But shortened again as the first attempt was red flagged again after an incident so it would be 14 laps for the final run. Still buzzing after his win, Christian was confident he’d be running at the front again. Max was less excited as he knew he might get caught up in a mid-field battle.

Talk about an anticlimax. Christian didn’t even come around to complete the first lap. On the fast left-hand bend at the back of the circuit the front tyre slid out from underneath him and down he went. Colder tyre on the first lap, clipped the kerb? We’ll never know but it was a sad end to Christian’s weekend. Not much better for Max. After a difficult first lap in the pack, he dropped back to P14 and was then mired in the mid-field, dicing with Brookes, Jackson, Glenn Irwin and Kent. He finished P11, 0.046 behind Irwin.

Some weekend. A win and a couple of crashes out of strong positions. That’s racing folks!

Championship standings

After it all, Christian is now P5 in the riders’ championship standings with Max P9. In the teams’ competition, AJN Steelstock Kawasaki is P7 but only 21 points behind Honda’s P3.

Next time

Back to Oulton Park for the penultimate round of this year’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship. Max was straight on the pace earlier in the year and can’t wait to get back. Christian was having his first run with us so expect him to be right in the mix this time as he’s now at one with his Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja.

Current champion Kyle Ryde now has a 31 point lead over Bradley Ray. But with six races to go and 25 points for a win at Oulton and double points at the Brands Hatch final, it’s still all to play for.

There’s going to be some very close and very serious racing….

Hope to see you there.

Regards. Nigel. Team Principal.