Head overcomes travails, looking forward to challenges ahead
The transition to FIM-E Super Street Bike has been somewhat character building for class rookie Bradley Head, but as we head into the second half of the season the Brit is looking to continue learning and improving at each and every event.
“We started the FIM-E season with a ‘must do better’ kind of attitude, the Main Event started with a DNQ due to only two passes during the whole weekend and some clutch troubles. We packed our bags and headed off to Tierp for the first time and were hoping for better. Still some teething issues (mostly me finding my way round riding these things) but a new PB of 7.55 @190mph out there left us fairly happy knowing there was still loads left to come despite another early exit in round 1 to eventual runner-up Margot [Schmidt]. We then went off to the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod for some much needed testing to make sure we were as ready as we could be for the next Tierp race. We were having a great weekend hitting PBs on every run from Friday to Saturday ending with a 7.45 @192, but unfortunately on our Q3 run a rod let go quite spectacularly in the burnout. For me my budget isn’t the biggest and I feared that this would be the end of my season as the damage was fairly big… but, thanks to some really great sponsors, friends and Jake Mechaell at JKE Race Works, we have managed to get a new engine in place for the rest of the year. This has been a mammoth effort to get ready and I’m so grateful to be surrounded by such a great team and people wanting to help me.”
“Looking ahead to August in Sweden and Germany we are hoping to keep chipping away at these PBs and hopefully get some round wins under my belt. I’m really looking forward especially to be getting back out to Germany as this was the setting for one of my best wins to date last year and also looking at the entry there is going to be a bumper 26 bike field out there which to my knowledge is some kind of record and will be an honour to be a part of!
Thanks to my sponsors as always
JKE Race Works
Slick Tricks Racing
Colin Millar and Lynn Purvis
Kathy Taylor
Robin Read
Jamie Royal”
The return to Tierp (which usually delivers good air in August) and the Hockenheimring (where Head took the event win in Super Comp Bike last year) will provide a degree of familiarity and optimism about getting into the lower 7 second zone before the year end.
Summit Racing Equipment Internationals takes place at Tierp Arena, Sweden 8th-11th August – more info https://speedevents.se/
NitrOlympX takes place at Hockenheimring, Germany 23rd-25th August – more info https://www.nitrolympx.de/en/
Words and photos Ivan Sansom & Rose Hughes
