A wet weekend In Scotland for Lincoln racer Katie Hand

Here is Kate's race report from an eventful weekend.

On Friday I had both free practices which were both in wet/ tricky conditions. I haven’t rode in the wet since I broke my collarbone so I was a little tentative. I do like those conditions but just needed to build my confidence up. I stayed out all the time in both sessions to get more laps under my belt. We made a couple changes in between sessions to the front end to make it a little more stable over the bumps and ripples of the track.

Qualifying:

It looked like it was going to be a wet session, however the track dries very quickly so we then maybe thought it would be patchy. By the time my session came around it was basically dry and I was able to go out and get some dry laps in. This was the first time over the weekend so again I was sort of confidence building. I felt as though I had a good set up with the bike and every lap I was going quicker. However the grid is smaller at Knock-hill and I missed out on race 1 by 0.009 of a second ! This was quite frustrating knowing that literally the smallest thing could have put me on the grid.

Race 2:

I luckily managed to get out onto the grid for race 2 on Sunday morning. It was a wet race which I do like but I just struggle with my getting my head into it sometimes in those conditions. A few laps in after I’d got going and found my feet I started to make some overtakes. I then started to chase down a rider that was a couple seconds in-front but it was slowly coming. From there until the end of the race it was a little lonely but I kept putting in consistent laps which was valid for the next race and my grid position. I was happy with how this race went and was glad to finish it with the conditions

Race 3:

I'd made up a few positions on the grid which I was satisfied with. However I didn’t get a brilliant start this time round so I wasn’t able to make up any positions. I got away with a good group and I was getting more confident and quicker every lap. It started to rain harder throughout the race so the rear started to get a little twitchy and the start of the race the conditions were drier. Again the the track was tough with it being so wet, but I was happy to be so consistent and getting faster each lap

My positions at the minute are far from ideal, but we are plucking away at it and i couldn’t have a better group of people behind me to help me do so. It’s coming and I’m putting in a lot of work to get me to the stage I need to be at

A huge thank you especially to my mum and dad for everything as well as the team. Everyone puts so much hard work into it all and it’s very much appreciated.

Next up is Brands Hatch over the weekend of 25th-27th of July