Round Three. Mellow Yellow. Snetterton.

Big weekend for the team celebrating our title sponsor’s local round. AJN Steelstock have a big presence on the UK motorcycle racing scene and to celebrate the fact, company boss Alan Boyden made a special request. Could Team Green turn Yellow for the weekend to reflect the classic Kawasaki Z1 candy yellow livery from 1972. Alan says it’s the bike that got him hooked! I think it’s fair to say the feedback was universally positive as the bikes really did look special and with Christian, Max and the crew all dressed up to match, it made quite an impact.

Back to the racing. We always knew that the highspeed Snetterton layout would be a bit of a challenge for our Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninjas. Our bikes do everything pretty well but the new for 2025 softer Pirelli SC0 rear tyre has changed the competitive balance. The Yamaha’s can now exploit a bit more of their superior corner speed while the more powerful Ducatis and BMWs have got some drive grip back for a speed advantage on the long straights.

The other big factor was the weather. Heat wave temperatures which peaked on Saturday. Air temperature for race one was 31.8 degrees with a track temperature of 48 degrees….. And then on Sunday the wind got up.

Free Practice and qualifying.

Encouraging start to the weekend with Max completing the second free practice session in P5 after getting in a quick lap in the final moments but still 0.8 off Bradley Ray’s searing pace. Christian right there too in P6 after very consistent runs in both sessions.

Both in the top 12 lap times so straight through to Q2 along with the three fastest runners from Q1. Things certainly hotted up with Ray going 0.5 under the lap record. Christian P7 and Max P9 would line up on the third row in a group of very close chasing times. Getting a good start and making no mistakes would be key in the races.

Race one.

16 lap feature race. Great start by Christian who slotted into P5 before running slightly wide at Agostini’s hairpin and dropping in behind Stacey and Nesbitt. Max also lost a place to Stacey. As the race developed, Christian cleared Stacey and Nesbitt and closed on Haslam who managed to hold him off using the superior speed of his Ducati on the straights. Max had a race long battle with Kent after he passed Stacey back plus the bonus of passing his mate Charlie Nesbitt on the final lap. P5 and P7 at the flag was certainly as good as we could have expected but incredibly Ray finished 19 seconds ahead of the main pack.

Race two.

Grid positions determined by race one lap times. Max on row two, P6 with Christian just behind on row three, P9.

12 lap sprint race so the start more important than ever. Christian got a flyer into turn one and completed the first lap with a gain of four places – P5. Max didn’t fare quite so well losing places to Stacey and Nesbitt again – P8. Soon back past Stacey, Max was hard on Nesbitt’s tail and passed him on lap five, only for the extra speed of  Nesbitt’s Honda to enable him to repass on the home straight. Very frustrating for Max as he tried everything to overcome the Honda’s advantage and compounded by Haslam’s Ducati breezing past at mid-race. Still fighting hard would eventually lead to a small mistake that let Brookes through and relegated Max to P9, but less than a second from Haslam P5. In fact, Haslam had out dragged Christian on the last lap to deprive him of his race long P5. P6 and P9 doesn’t really reflect the fact that both bikes were really competitive in the pack but we were just losing out due to the nature of the circuit.  

Race three.

Second 16 lap feature race and a chance to see if we could make more progress in the the final race. By now the wind had really picked up and was making holding position on the straights even more of a challenge.  On the grid, Max P6 again and Christian P9. First few corners didn’t go particularly well this time and Max came round P8 with Christian right behind. Max had lost places to Brookes and Kent and the three of them had a race long battle. Past Kent on three occasions, Max just couldn’t keep him behind.

Christian wasn’t feeling it and had a difficult race as he dropped back from Max and eventually fell to Stacey and Nesbitt who he’d comfortably beaten in the earlier races. Max soldiered on in his three-way battle and eventually caught Haslam, Bridewell and Skinner. If he hadn’t lost a few tenths in a final, last lap, attempt to pass Kent, he would have been only 2.5 from Haslam in P3 after nearly half an hours racing. Max reckoned it was his most satisfying P8 as he was fighting with the big boys. Ray was way off into the distance again on his way to a hat-trick of wins, 14 seconds ahead of the chasing pack with only Ryde able to keep him in sight.

A mixed end to the weekend for us but the main thing was that Max and Christian never gave up and were always in the fight.

Fair to say Team Yellow put on a good show. Not just on track and in the garage but also in the special hospitality set up to cater for all guests who joined us and the AJN Steelstock team.

Next time.

We’re back on the road again tomorrow as we’ve got a two day test this week, up in Scotland at Knockhill, in preparation for round four there in a couple of weeks’ time. Great opportunity not just to dial into the circuit but also try out out some set up changes to see if we can help Christian and Max squeeze out a few more fractions of a second.

Hopefully we’ll be right there come the races. Knockhill is a great event, hope to see you there.

Regards. Nigel. Team Principle.