THE LAST TWO ROUNDS AND THE TEAM HAD GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR THESE TWO!

Both Donington and Brands Indy are circuits that Team Emco rider Neil Faulkner knows well.A great opportunity to get the bike set up sorted out... all but a bit late in the season. Practice went well with Faulkner ending up consistantly higher up the order than throughout the rest of the season. He reported the bike felt good with the only issues being grip and stopping the bike from wheelying out of turns. With almost the entire grid now using traction control and anti-wheely, the disadvantage was now diificult to overcome. However, come qualifying Faulkner was immediately in the top twenty and everything looked good. Then, as if to say dont get carried away, Faulkner tangled with Tommy Hill on his second qualifier and that ruined his fastest lap. As the seconds ticked away, Faulkner slipped down the order and ended up on the back row again, all but ahead of ex World Supersport Champion Ian Macpherson and just behind Sean Emmett. The team were confident they were quicker than the row ahead on race tyres but wanted more!! A few more adjustments to the bike to find more grip saw the team in a confident mood for the next days races. In the first race, Faulkner made an ok start, but immediately found he had no rear grip, as he tried and tried to find a way past the riders in front he found it increasingly difficult to hold the pace he had achieved in practice. He stayed out till the end but knew he needed to make changes to the bike to how they had been before. Again it was not to be, on the sighting lap, the bike started to run on three cylinders and he pulled into the pits and waited patiently as the team franticaly tried to find the problem. To no avail as the grid pulled away for the warm up and then the start of the race, the team still couldnt find the problem. Time for the bike to go back to Virgin Yamaha for a bit of fault diagnosis!