Hi everyone,

As I write this I am sitting in Edinburgh airport having just spilt a coffee over some Scottish guy’s bag. I’ll remember not to do that again. But apart from that everything seems to be going good at the minute. I am on my way home after a good testing club race weekend at Knockhill race circuit in preparation for the British Championship round at Knockhill on 2,3,4 July.

Weather was good for most of the weekend which is unexpected around these parts. To start Saturday morning off we had a qualifying session to determine what grid position I would have for all the weekend’s races. Throughout the shortened session I struggled to get a clear lap due to the amount of traffic on circuit and ended up on the 4^th row in15^th. After my mechanic Simon and I made a few changes to the bike we were off on race 1 and I managed to get a decent start and pulled right through the field and piped the win on the penultimate lap. But wins weren’t essential this weekend. I’ll take them when I get them but just getting a good bike set up and decent lap times was what was important to me. Race 2 was something similar only I took the lead earlier in the race and managed to win by a few seconds, also going quicker than I ever have around this circuit. In the final race it was just starting to spit with rain as we went out onto the starting grid. The race went ahead but as the race went on the conditions were getting worse and worse but I still managed to get to take the lead in the race a couple of laps before the race was stopped.

So 3 wins, fast lap times, best overall 600 and voted ‘Rider of the day’ was a good weekend’s work for us and very worth while track time on the bike. The bike felt perfect and with new tyres I no we can do lap record pace at the British Championship round coming up.

Thanks to everyone for there help and support so far and hopefully you will see me on the podium in a few weeks time.

Cheers Nikki Coates #65